Clean Air Program (CAP) Grants
Colorado’s Clean Air Program Grants
Funding to reduce industrial air pollution.
Funding Overview:
Type: Grant
For: Business & Industry, Government
Amount: $25 million
Match: Required
RFA rounds: Funding round focused on solution providers opens October 1, 2025 and closes October 31 at 5:00 PM MT. See How to Apply.
Industrial production is among the top five leading contributors of emissions in the state. Colorado’s Clean Air Program provides grants for industry-related emission reduction projects that bring the State closer to its air pollutant emission reduction goals.
Clean Air Program grants offset the direct costs of purchasing industrial air pollutant emission reduction equipment at the site where air pollutant emissions are generated and released.
The Colorado Energy Office (CEO) offered technical assistance to help eligible facilities identify decarbonization opportunities. Visit the CAP Technical Assistance Offering webpage to learn more about this initiative.
Sign up for Industrial Energy Program Updates
Contact Information: Libby Lee, elizabeth.r.lee@state.co.us
Webinars and Office Hours
CEO will host a Funding Decarbonization Technology RFA Informational Webinar on October 8 at 1:00 PM MT.
Register for the webinar
CEO will also host office hours on October 15, 22, and 29 at 10:00 AM MT.
Register for office hours
Eligibility
The current funding round will differ from previous application rounds, focusing on decarbonization technology providers and “as-a-service” providers as initial applicants. Such applicants will not be required to have a full project implementation plan, but rather have a technology solution and plan for stakeholder engagement to find an eligible “end user” location for implementation.
Unless the initial applicant is an as-a-service provider, initial applicants may reassign the Grant Agreement to the “end use” or project site once one is identified.
Eligible Applicants
- Decarbonization solution providers: an entity that develops/proposes a CAP-eligible decarbonization solution at a CAP-qualifying facility or location
- As-a-service providers: a decarbonization solution provider that purchases, installs, owns, and is responsible for the operation and maintenance of eligible decarbonization equipment at an end user’s facility. This offers a third-party financing and ownership model where there is no asset or liability added to the end-user’s balance sheet, making the service payment similar to any other operating expenditure, such as a subscription payment.
Eligible Project Sites
The following end-user locations are eligible sites for CAP grant project implementation:
- Manufacturing operations
- Cement plants
- Steel mills
- Mines
- Midstream Operators
- Refineries
- Meat-packing plants
- Dairies
- Airline operations
- Airports
- Drinking and wastewater treatment plants
- Landfill operators
- Abandoned coal mine sites
- Facilities regulated by Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Energy Management for Manufacturing in Colorado (GEMM-I or GEMM-2)
Eligible Project Types
Clean Air Program funding is available for voluntary emissions reduction projects at eligible industrial facilities. Voluntary projects are projects that achieve emissions reductions beyond or before reductions required by applicable state and federal laws, regulations, or mandates.
Eligible project types include:
- Fossil fuel efficiency & fuel switching to lower carbon fuel sources
- Industrial process changes that reduce air pollutant emissions
- Converting fossil fuel-powered equipment/processes to an electric fuel source (i.e. strategic electrification)
- Carbon management projects; specifically, carbon capture from an industrial point source
- Methane capture, destruction, and/or utilization
- Other direct air pollutant and/or greenhouse gas avoidance opportunities
How to Apply
Please submit applications via email to ceo_cleanairprogram@state.co.us no later than October 31, 5:00 PM MT. Application materials are available in the folder linked below.
View application materials
Additional Resources
View 2024 Clean Air Program Report
Industrial facilities may also be eligible for funding support through the Colorado Industrial Tax Credit Offering (CITCO), but may not combine this funding with CAP.
Learn more about CITCO
