US DoE invests USD 82m to enhance solar supply chain, grid management

The US Department of Energy (DoE) on Thursday announced USD 52 million (EUR 47.5m) in funding for 19 research, development and demonstration projects that seek to strengthen domestic solar manufacturing, support the recycling of solar panels and develop new solar technologies.

The sum includes USD 10 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. This funding will back eight projects focused on reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency of panel recycling processes.

In addition, the DoE announced a USD-30-million funding opportunity for grid management tools that could help integrate solar energy into the grid. The funding opportunity is entitled the Operation and Planning Tools for Inverter-based Resource Management and Availability in Future Power (OPTIMA).

The support announced today includes USD 16 million for two projects, both located in Ohio, in the Solar Manufacturing Incubator programme. These will see First Solar and Toledo Solar demonstrate cadmium telluride (CdTe) photovoltaic (PV) technologies.

A further seven projects will de-risk new technologies and manufacturing processes, taking the solutions to the prototype stage. These, for instance, include a project that will produce self-extinguishing PV connectors preventing fires in PV systems and a project that will improve floating PV systems.

Two projects, led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Colorado Boulder, will receive a total of USD 18 million through the PV Research and Development funding programme to advance perovskite solar cell devices.

According to the announcement, since president Joe Biden took office, more than USD 5 billion in private sector domestic solar manufacturing investments have been announced.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.914)

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