DOE is supporting efforts to improve the accuracy of solar forecasting at sub-hourly, hourly, and day-ahead timeframes. By gaining a better understanding of changes in solar irradiance due to cloud formation, movement, and other weather-related factors, utility companies and power system operators can more accurately anticipate changes in solar power production and take actions to ensure the stability of the national power grid.

As part of the SunShot Initiative, this funding opportunity is designed to accommodate an expanding U.S. solar market. Advancements in solar generation, transmission technology, resource forecasting, operational practices, and regulatory procedures will collectively enable the successful integration of high levels of solar penetration on the grid. By addressing all sectors of the solar energy economy, the SunShot Initiative works to reduce the total installed cost of solar energy systems.

DOE is supporting the development of commercial plug-and-play photovoltaic (PV) systems that make installing a solar energy system as easy as plugging in an appliance. This funding advances the concept of a market-ready plug-and-play PV system, which is envisioned as an off-the-shelf product that is fully inclusive with little need for individual customization. The homeowner simply plugs the system into a PV-ready circuit and an automatic PV discovery process initiates communication between the system and the utility.

As part of the SunShot Initiative, this funding opportunity is designed to reduce costs and simplify installations so that solar can be more accessible for Americans. This solicitation targets universities, industry, utilities, local authorities having jurisdiction, national laboratories, and other stakeholders with an interest in transforming the residential solar market. By addressing all sectors of the solar energy economy, the SunShot Initiative works to reduce the total installed cost of solar energy systems.

The DOE SunShot Initiative seeks feedback from industry, national laboratories, and members of academia relating to the physics of reliability in photovoltaic (PV) devices. The wide diversity of deployment conditions for PV systems leads to a variety of failure mechanisms that require physics-based modeling for improved understanding and prevention.

PV modules are exposed to severe operating conditions involving temperature, thermal cycling, UV radiation, humidity, environmental weathering, electrical, and other stresses. Limited understanding exists on the fundamental degradation mechanisms and the service life for materials, such as encapsulants, solders, interconnections, and semiconductor layers, under single or combined stress conditions.

This request for information seeks to identify PV failure mechanisms that could improve the testing, design, and bankability of solar energy products.

DOE is supporting efforts by collaborative research teams to significantly lower the cost of solar energy systems. The Bridging Research Interactions through collaborative Development Grants in Energy (BRIDGE) program allows applied research teams to access the tools and staff expertise at existing DOE Office of Science research facilities so fundamental scientific discoveries can be rapidly transitioned to existing product lines and projects. 

The BRIDGE program is the first within the SunShot Initiative to provide engineers and scientists developing solar technologies with the tools and expertise of the Department’s Office of Science research facilities, including major facilities for x-ray and neutron scattering, nanoscale science, advanced microcharacterization, environmental molecular sciences, and advanced scientific computing. This collaborative approach will accelerate innovations to lower the cost of solar technologies.

DOE is soliciting proposals for the seventh round of the SunShot Incubator Program that will bring to market a novel, non-incremental technology capable of achieving cost-reduction goals in any area of solar energy deployment. Areas of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Photovoltaics


• Concentrating Solar Power


• Balance of Systems


• Power Electronics


• Tools to Reduce Non-Hardware Costs


• Plug-and-Play Wiring and Installation Techniques


• Energy Storage.

As part of the SunShot Incubator program, this funding opportunity is designed to help small businesses and entrepreneurs develop both hardware technologies and non-hardware solutions that will make solar more accessible for Americans.

By addressing all sectors of the solar energy economy, the SunShot Initiative works to reduce the total installed cost of photovoltaic systems.

The Photovoltaic (PV) Technology Incubator project aims to shorten the timeline for companies to transition prototype and pre-commercial PV technologies into pilot and full-scale manufacture. This will be the fourth installment of the successful PV Incubator project, which represents a significant partnering with U.S. industry to meet aggressive cost and installation goals and accelerate the commercialization of these technologies.

The project is unique from previous versions in that it offers two tiers. Tier 1 projects will receive up to $1 million each through 12-month phased subcontracts, and focus on accelerating the development of innovative PV module-related technologies to the prototype stage. DOE anticipates selecting 4 – 6 Tier 1 projects for awards. Tier 2 projects will receive up to $4 million each through 18-month phased subcontracts, and focus on shortening the timeline for companies to transition innovative lab-scale and pre-commercial prototypes into pilot and eventually full-scale manufacture. DOE anticipates selecting 2 – 3 Tier 2 projects for awards. This financial opportunity is administered by DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL).

The objective of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to fund projects that develop technologies in power electronics that reduce overall photovoltaic (PV) system costs, allow high penetrations of solar technologies onto the grid (e.g., reactive power, energy storage, advanced functionalities), and enhance the performance, reliability, and safety of the PV system. In addition, projects funded under this FOA will demonstrate the feasibility of these technologies in the field and will directly support the objectives of the SunShot Initiative, which has a goal to reduce the total costs (including installer margin) of solar energy systems by about 75% before the end of the decade and to make solar competitive with conventional fossil fuel-sourced generation. 

DOE has identified several major areas where significant cost reductions in power electronics can be made, including:  1) economies of scale; 2) advanced components; 3) reliability; 4) smart grid integration and 5) understanding of system implications. DOE also is considering how changes in power electronics impact the cost of the PV system as a whole. DOE anticipates that the U.S. solar industry can reach the aggressive SunShot targets by focusing on both power electronics research and technologies more specific to grid-connected PV systems.

There will be two topics to which an application may be submitted under this FOA. 

• Topic 1: Smart-Grid Functionality  


• Topic 2: Using Power Electronics to Address Balance of System Costs

The objective of this Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is to significantly reduce the balance of system hardware cost component of photovoltaic (PV) systems. This FOA directly supports the goals of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Program and the SunShot Initiative, which has a goal to reduce the total cost (including installer margin) of solar energy systems by about 75% before the end of the decade. 

Under this FOA, the DOE Solar Program is requesting applications for research, development, and demonstration of new components and system designs or the development of new building code language to overcome scientific,  technological, and engineering barriers to achieve safe, very low cost, and high reliability balance of system hardware. While this FOA is meant to mainly address hardware and labor costs and not “soft” costs, advancements in hardware that may result in lower soft costs (for example, permitting and site preparation) are encouraged. 

There will be four topics to which an application may be submitted under this FOA. 

• Topic 1: Transformational Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) Modules  


• Topic 2: Roof and Ground Mount Innovations  


• Topic 3: Transformational Photovoltaic System Designs  


• Topic 4: Development of New Wind Load Codes for PV Systems

The U.S. Department of Energy seeks to fund revolutionary, exploratory research to create highly disruptive solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies that will meet installed system cost targets of $1 per watt and lower beyond 2020. The Transformational Science and Technology: Next Generation PV II funding opportunity will support research into technologies that have the potential for much higher efficiency, lower cost, and/or more reliable performance than existing commercial and near-commercial PV technologies and their expected incremental progress in future years. 

As part of the SunShot Initiative, this early-stage applied research program is intended to demonstrate and prove new concepts in materials, processes, and device designs to feed into component development at the laboratory scale, with subsequent component integration, engineering scale-up, and eventual commercial production. This Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) is designed to look beyond incremental near-term innovation and explore transformative concepts with the potential to break through performance barriers as they are known today.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) seeks to fund applied scientific research that provides the technical foundation for significant increases in solar photovoltaic (PV) cell efficiency, to enable commercial and near-commercial PV technologies to achieve $1 per watt direct current installed system cost targets by the end of the decade. Combined with the technical and funding resources from the National Science Foundation (NSF), this joint Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) will identify and fund solar device physics and PV technology research and development that will improve PV cell performance and reduce module cost for grid-scale commercial applications. 

Projects funded under this FOA are intended to address identified cost and efficiency barriers through advances in the PV science and engineering knowledge base, improved materials and processes for PV cell components, and innovative approaches for closing the gap between production cell efficiency and laboratory cell efficiency, and between laboratory cell efficiency and the theoretical maximum. These goals jointly support the missions of the DOE Solar Energy Technologies Program and the NSF Electrical, Communications, and Cyber Systems (ECCS) Division.  Through this FOA, the DOE Solar Program and ECCS intend to jointly pursue foundational research into PV cell and subcell technology to support the SunShot Initiative, which has a goal to reduce the cost of solar electricity from solar by 75% over the next decade to make it competitive with conventional fossil fuel-sourced generation.   

There will be three topics to which an application may be submitted under this FOA.   

• Topic 1: Foundational Research on PV Subcell Materials and Processes


• Topic 2: Foundational PV Cell Research


• Topic 3: Barrier Focus Teams