DOE Awards ~$40M for Grid Decarbonizing Solar Technologies

The DOE has awarded nearly $40 million to 40 projects that are advancing the next generation of solar, storage, and industrial technologies necessary for achieving the Biden-Harris administration’s climate goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035. Specifically, the projects will reduce the cost of solar technologies by increasing the lifespan of photovoltaic (PV) systems from 30 to 50 years, developing technologies that will enable solar to be used in fuel and chemicals production, and advancing novel storage technologies.

The 40 projects focus on concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) and PV. PV technologies directly convert sunlight into electricity, while CSP captures heat from sunlight and uses that thermal energy.

CSP project funding recipients from DOE EPSCoR jurisdictions include:

• University of NEVADA-Las Vegas, Development of Gas Bearings for Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Recompression Brayton Cycle. Award Amount: $200,000.
• University of NEVADA-Reno, Innovative Technology for Continuous, Online (In Situ) Monitoring of Corrosivity of Molten Salts to Prevent Catastrophic Failure of Solar Thermal Plants. Award Amount: $400,000.
• Brayton Energy (Hampton, NEW HAMPSHIRE), Performance Optimization of Sold Particle TES Heat Exchanger by Combining Benefit of Extended Surfaces and Particle Fluidization. Award Amount: $1.9 million.

PV project funding recipients from DOE EPSCoR jurisdictions include:

• University of ALABAMA, Low-Cost, Highly Efficient and Fast Thermally Pressed Scalable Carbon-Based Planar Perovskite Solar Cells. Award Amount: $300,000.
• University of NEBRASKA-Lincoln, A Hot-Swappable, Fault-Tolerant, Modular Power Converter System for Solar Photovoltaic Plants. Award Amount: $300,000.
• SOUTH DAKOTA School of Mines and Technology, Remanufacturable “Net-Zero Pb” Perovskite Solar Modules. Award Amount: $200,000.