As part of the Department of Energy's SunShot Initiative, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced nearly $170 million in available funding over three years to support a range of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology areas. The SunShot Initiative aims to
As part of the Department of Energy's SunShot Initiative, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced nearly $170 million in available funding over three years to support a range of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology areas. The SunShot Initiative aims to reduce the total cost of solar energy systems by about 75 percent - to roughly $1 per watt - before the end of the decade.
The research and development funding announced will support four areas of investment, including improving the efficiency and performance of solar cells; developing new installation - or balance of systems - technologies; advancing solar energy grid integration; and researching new materials and processes for solar PV technologies. Together, these investments will help reduce the cost for utility-scale solar energy installations, increase American economic competitiveness, and help the United States lead the world in the global market for solar photovoltaics.
The four funding opportunities build on the Department's portfolio of research and development efforts in solar energy. Activities under these funding areas will help improve the performance of current and next generation PV cells, develop advanced power electronics that optimize the performance of PV installations, and reduce the costs of PV balance-of-system hardware. These include:
- Foundational Program to Advance Cell Efficiency (F-PACE): In a collaborative funding effort with the National Science Foundation, $39 million is available for research and development in solar device physics and PV technology to improve PV cell performance and reduce the costs of modules for grid-scale commercial applications.
- PV Balance of Systems: $60 million in funding is available for research, development, and demonstration of balance of system components. Projects may include new building-integrated photovoltaic products, new mounting and wiring technologies, and new building code language that can foster the use of innovative, low-cost hardware designs while maintaining safety and reliability.
- Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems (SEGIS)-Advanced Concepts: $40 million in funding is available to develop technologies that will help increase the integration of solar energy onto the electrical grid and facilitate interactions between solar energy systems and Smart G