DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) will provide $42m in funding now for 40 projects to improve PV performance, reliability and manufacturability, and accelerate deployment.
This includes PV module and system design, including hardware and software solutions that facilitate the rapid installation and interconnection of PV systems.
It intends to disburse up to $65m in further funding, subject to appropriation, for future PV research and development projects that will continue driving down the cost of solar energy and accelerate deployment nationwide.
Another focus of funding is to improve solar irradiance and power forecasts that will speed up data integration into energy management systems used by utilities.
One goal under EERE’s SunShot initiative is drive down the levelized cost of utility-scale solar electricity to $0.06/kWh without incentives by 2020. The projects and new funding announced today aim to reach costs well below that threshold, according to a DOE statement.
"Since 2008, the commitments made by the Department of Energy have contributed to solar PV's deployment growing 30-fold and overall costs falling more than 60%," said Franklin Orr, undersecretary for science and energy.
The US has been installing PV at a record pace this year with 2.05GW in the second quarter alone. It is on track to add 13.9GW this year, nearly double the previous yearly high of 7.26GW in 2015, according to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA).
PV accounted for 26% of all new electric generating capacity brought online in the US in the first half.
