The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $40 million in investments across the solar energy supply chain, including the selection of four projects meant to improve the lifecycle of photovoltaic (PV) solar systems.
The selected projects will aim to increase system lifetime and to facilitate material recovery once a system is decommissioned. DOE also launched a prize program that will open new markets for solar energy system equipment, announced winners in the American-Made Solar Prize Round 7, and issued a notice of intent for up to $20 million to advance solar manufacturing.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is investing in a clean energy future that’s built to last,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. “The U.S. has doubled annual solar installations over the past four years, and today’s announcement further supports manufacturers as they create more resilient solar energy technologies and maximize the life of their products.”
DOE announced the selection of four research and development projects to receive $16 million, including $8 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, aimed at reducing the costs and impacts of solar energy technologies. The Materials, Operation and Recycling of Photovoltaics (MORE PV) funding program supports DOE’s Photovoltaics End-of-Life Action Plan, which aims to halve the cost of recycling by 2030 and reduce the environmental impact of solar energy modules at end-of-life.
The funding program also set up the Solar Partnership to Advance Recycling and Circularity (Solar PARC), which aims to improve materials recovery and develop safe end-of-life practices for PV system components. This partnership of about 30 organizations, led by the Electric Power Research Institute and including academic and industrial stakeholders, intends to improve the circularity and lifecycle impact of PV systems through technology solutions, strategic partnerships, and community benefits.
The selected projects are:
Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, OH): $4 million
kWh Analytics (Sacramento, CA): $2.4 million
University of North Carolina at Charlotte (Charlotte, NC): $1.3 million
Electric Power Research Institute (Palo Alto, CA): $8 million
DOE also announced the upcoming $3 million American-Made Promoting Registration of Inverters and Modules with Ecolabel (PRIME) Prize. The prize aims to incentivize the registration of solar PV module and inverter products through the Global Electronics Council’s Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) ecolabel standard. Ecolabels, which are marks placed on product packaging to identify products that meet specific environmental performance criteria, can help address environmental impacts and end-of-life management for PV products, DOE said.
The American-Made Solar Prize is a multimillion-dollar prize program designed to spur innovations in U.S. solar hardware and software technologies and address challenges to rapid, equitable solar energy deployment. Through seven rounds of the Solar Prize, DOE has awarded $21.6 million in cash prizes to support solar technologies. After a live demo day in which Solar Prize Round 7 finalist teams pitched their solutions to a panel of judges at RE+, SETO announced that two teams each received $500,000 for their early-stage innovations addressing challenges to the rapid deployment of equitable solar energy.
The winning teams are:
Fram Energy (Newburgh, NY)
Gritt Robotics (Belmont, CA)
