Energy Department to Make $59 Million Investment in Solar Energy

Source: funding opportunity announcement.

The Energy Department on January 29 announced more than $59 million in funding to support solar energy innovation. The Department is making $45 million in funding available to quickly move innovative solar manufacturing technologies to market and is also awarding more than $14 million to 15 new projects that will help communities develop multi-year solar deployment plans to install solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity in homes, businesses, and communities.

The $45 million Technology to Market funding opportunity is part of the Department’s Clean Energy Manufacturing Initiative, aimed at boosting U.S. competitiveness and supporting a strong, domestic, manufacturing sector for clean energy. This funding opportunity combines three historically separate SunShot Initiative funding programs—Incubator, Solar Manufacturing Technology, and Scaling Up Nascent PV at Home—into one that will support projects with the potential to significantly reduce the costs for solar energy systems across a variety of technology areas. Concept papers are due on February 24, 2015.

The 15 Solar Market Pathways projects pursue various approaches to developing actionable solar deployment plans and strategies to promote deployment at residential, community, and commercial scales. The awardees include nonprofits, utilities, industry associations, universities, and state and local jurisdictions in California, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin, as well as Washington, D.C.

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