Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Funding Opportunities $50 Million in Funding Potential for Solar Energy Technology Research and Innovation
To accomplish the goals of the SunShot Initiative, the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office supports funding opportunities on photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, systems integration, technology to market, and soft costs projects. Following an open, competitive solicitation process, these funding opportunities encourage collaborative partnerships among industry, universities, national laboratories, federal, state, and local governments and non-government agencies and advocacy groups. Solicitations may include financial or technical assistance.
Broadly, these Energy Department investments support state-of-the-art products, solutions, and technology advancements that will increase solar energy system performance and efficiency and drive down costs. The Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort that aggressively drives innovation to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources by the end of the decade.
Photovoltaic Research and Development (PVRD)
Funding Amount: $20M to fund 30- 35 projects
To continue driving down solar photovoltaic (PV) costs beyond the current SunShot goals (to make solar energy cost-competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of this decade), the Energy Department announced $20 million available to further improve PV module performance, reliability, and manufacturability, while also advancing next generation PV concepts. In addition to typical multiyear research projects, this funding opportunity includes a topic area dedicated to small, single-year projects aimed at demonstrating the potential for expanded work in cutting-edge PV research. This funding opportunity aims to reach solar PV costs by the year 2030 that are one-half to one-third of the original SunShot goals, in order to support widespread deployment of PV.
PVRD Webinar: September 29, 2015
Letter of Intent due: October 7, 2015
Sunshot Technology to Market 2
To accelerate the current growth trajectory of solar energy in America, a wide variety of products and services are needed to address and improve industry operations up and down the value chain. The Department is announcing $30 million to support the development of new solar tools, technologies, and services that can swiftly enter the solar marketplace and directly address SunShot goals. This funding opportunity is meant to develop products and services that will help the solar industry to increase system value while reducing hardware costs, improve business operational efficiency, broaden the investor pool for project development, develop products leveraging new and emerging technologies, streamline regulatory processes, and more.
Webinar: October 28, 2015
Letter of Intent due: November 2, 2015