The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains (MESC) released a Request for Information (RFI) on clean energy supply chain data and analysis methods. This RFI is an opportunity for industry and other stakeholders to highlight specific supply chain gaps, vulnerabilities, and/or challenges impacting various components of clean energy technologies.

MESC will use the responses to create a heatmap to assess investment opportunities across clean energy supply chains, as a follow on to the analysis first released in the 2023 Supply Chain Progress Report. This RFI seeks responses from manufacturers in the clean energy supply chain, end-use developers, labor unions, supply chain researchers, and other relevant stakeholders.

The RFI also introduces MESC’s supply chain analysis methodology, which breaks out supply chains into nine categories, from extraction to installation, and examines both supply-demand restrictions and geographic, operational, and sole-source vulnerabilities. MESC is also seeking responses from industry, academia, and researchers on how DOE can continue to improve supply chain analysis.

Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding, MESC is well positioned to support strategic investment across the energy supply chain, including funding provisions such as the Battery Materials Processing and Battery Manufacturing and Recycling Grants, the Defense Production Act, and the 48C Qualifying Advanced Energy Project Credit, in partnership with US Treasury and Internal Revenue Service.

In addition to strategic investments, MESC is also building a supply chain analysis hub, including through the Modelling, Mapping, and Analysis Consortium of DOE national laboratories. This RFI will support and inform MESC’s supply chain analysis and investment strategy across the DOE.