Funding Opportunities

The research and development (R&D) activities to be funded under this FOA will support the government-wide approach to the climate crisis by driving the innovation that can lead to the deployment of clean energy technologies, which are critical for climate protection. Specifically, this FOA will fund innovative solar photovoltaics (PV) R&D that reduces the cost of PV modules, reduces carbon and energy intensity of PV manufacturing processes, and optimizes PV technology for new, specialized markets.

SETO’s PVRD program works to accelerate the deployment of solar energy technologies by funding innovative R&D in PV cell and module technologies, balance-of-system components, reliability tracing and tracking, metrology, and other key research questions in PV. To accelerate toward these deployment targets and augment SETO’s ongoing PV research portfolio,12 this FOA will fund R&D on innovative cell- and minimodule-level technologies focused on three major goals:

•Enable cost reduction on an LCOE basis through development of durable, high-efficiency cell and module PV technology

•Identify pathways to reduce the carbon intensity and energy intensity of industrial processes required to fabricate PV cells and modules

•Increase technical viability of PV cells and modules tailored for emerging integrated PV sectors, such as building-integrated PV (BIPV) and vehicle-integrated PV.

This FOA will fund innovative R&D projects that aim to advance the state of the art in various cell and module technologies to accomplish these goals of cost reduction, lower carbon intensity, and viability of dual-use markets. This FOA is separated into two topic areas:

•Photovoltaic Advances in Cell Efficiency, Reliability, and Supply Chain (PACERS): Applications in four PV supply chain, cell, and module technology spaces are of particular interest: low-carbon synthesis of metallurgical-grade silicon (MGS, here defined as silicon that is 98% pure as defined by the 5/5/3 standard)13 production, crystalline silicon (c-Si) PV, III-V PV, and organic PV (OPV). However, proposals for any industrial process, cell, or minimodule-level research that enables the goals of this FOA will be considered, excluding areas specified as not of interest in Section I.C., such as perovskite technology, which is addressed in other funding programs, and CdTe technology, which is addressed in Topic Area 2.

•Building Academic Capabilities in Cadmium Telluride: Applications describing advanced R&D projects requiring the procurement or upgrade of CdTe equipment are of interest. Proposals should detail work that will enhance fabrication, characterization, or analytical capabilities while also benefiting the larger CdTe PV research community.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) and Building Technologies Office (BTO) are requesting information on technical and commercial challenges and opportunities for building integrated and built environment integrated photovoltaic systems.

Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to bipv@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on April 1, 2022.

Note:  Full Application review has been completed and selections have been announced.  Applicants can check their selection status and view consensus merit review strengths and weaknesses in Exchange.

The purpose of amendment 001 is to:

A) Update the Cost Impact tables in Section I Funding Opportunity Description, on pages 9-11, to clarify the cost components for electrical and hardware labor.

All other parts of the Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) remain unchanged.

The areas which have changed with this modification are highlighted within the FOA. 

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 Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Solar Energy Technologies Program (SETP) and the SunShot Initiative, which has a goal to reduce the total cost (including installer margin) of solar energy systems by about 75 percent before the end of the decade.  Under this FOA, DOE  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 achieving 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 (permitting, site preparation, etc.) are encouraged. 

There are 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