Clean Energy Technology...
The US Department of Energy just announced its Small Business Vouchers Pilot program which aims to help small businesses bring next generation clean energy technologies to the market faster by giving them access to the expertise and specialized equipment available at the Energy Department's national labs. More than 100 small businesses selected through the pilot's merit review process will receive up to $300,000 in vouchers to exchange for national lab technical assistance or initiate collaborative research projects. The attached Overview and Factsheet describes the program details.
In addition, a Photovoltaic Research and Development funding opportunity will fund approximately 30 to 35 projects that will advance the limits of photovoltaic cell and module performance toward and beyond the 2020 SunShot goals. This funding opportunity has three topics. Topic area 1 is dedicated to small, single-year projects intended to demonstrate the potential for expanded work in a given area, which will be reviewed and selected on an accelerated schedule. Topic areas 2 and 3 are traditional, multiyear research projects. All topics will ask applicants to demonstrate a convincing ability to improve the power conversion efficiency, fielded energy output, service lifetime, or manufacturability of commercial and emerging PV technologies. Submissions for topic area 1 and concept papers for topic areas 2 and 3 are due October 19.
The SunShot Technology to Market 2 "Incubator 11, SolarMat 4" funding opportunity supports the development of tools, technologies, and services that will significantly reduce the costs for solar energy systems across all technology areas. It represents the coordinated release of the SunShot Tech-to-Market marquee annual funding programs designed to help for-profit businesses — Incubator and SolarMat. This funding opportunity seeks to foster and accelerate the development of innovative and impactful technologies and businesses working to reduce the levelized cost of electricity for solar. Concept papers are due November 18.