SunShot Awards $53 Million for 40 Projects to Drive Innovation, Cut Cost of Solar Power Next Generation Photovoltaics 3 Winners Due in part to the Energy Department’s long-term investments and partnerships with private industry, academia, and DOE National Laboratories, solar photovoltaic (PV) panels now cost 50 percent of what they did three years ago. To accelerate the development of next generation PV technologies that will further drive down costs, the Energy Department is awarding more than $14 million to 10 research institutions through its Next Generation PV 3 program to improve the performance, efficiency, and durability of solar PV devices. The R&D projects will explore a variety of leading-edge solutions, from new high-performance materials to novel techniques for creating more efficient solar cells that cost less to manufacture. SunShot Incubator 9 Winners Through SunShot’s Incubator program, the Energy Department is investing more than $14 million in 20 small businesses that will develop innovative technologies and services to further drive down hardware and non-hardware costs for solar electric systems. The projects take a number of approaches to decreasing costs, creating a software-based solution to quantify risk for solar investors, developing advanced materials and components that maximize efficiency for concentrating solar power (CSP) and identifying ways to eliminate the need for expensive silver in solar cell manufacturing. Solar Manufacturing Technology 2 Winners As a part of the Administration’s effort to support advanced manufacturing in the U.S., the Energy Department is committed to fostering innovation in solar energy manufacturing in order to further drive down the cost of solar technology and increase domestic manufacturing. Through SunShot’s Solar Manufacturing 2 program, the Energy Department is awarding more than $24 million to 10 U.S.-based solar manufacturers working to develop and implement innovative technologies that will reduce costs and increase efficiency in manufacturing processes used to make PV and CSP technologies. These investments focus on tackling key cost-contributors such as raw materials, labor-intensive processes, and capital expenses. More SunShot Program Updates Comments? Draft Rules for SunShot Prize: Race to 7-Day Solar Despite tremendous progress in the U. S. solar market in the past several years, going solar remains a long and arduous customer experience for many Americans due to the inefficient processes required to travel from "permit to plug-in," including permitting, inspection, and grid interconnection. Customers often wait as long as six months to flip the switch on a small residential solar system that could be grid-connected simply and easily if these steps were improved. The SunShot Prize aims to change that. This competition will spur faster, easier, and cheaper solar deployment in the U.S. and will offer a total of $10 million in cash awards to make the permit to plug-in process more efficient than ever before. SunShot is asking the solar community to review the draft rules for this prize contest and provide comments by Nov. 28 here. SunShot Awardee Spotlight: SolarPermit.org SunShot awardee Clean Power Finance has built an engaged community united to simplify solar permitting. SolarPermit.org hosts the National Solar Permitting Database, a free, online database of solar permitting requirements of cities and counties. Today, the site has over 1,300 users, including solar installers and other industry stakeholders. Using a crowdsourcing model similar to Wikipedia, these users have helped to identify permitting requirements in more than 10,000 communities across the country. When this information is widely available, it makes permitting faster and reduces soft costs. Learn more in this video or register for a free account at SolarPermit.org. 
Blog Post: New Study Reveals the Power of Solar Schools The impressive and precipitous rise of the U.S. solar industry is well documented. As of August 2014, total installed solar electric capacity neared 16 gigawatts (GW), providing enough solar electricity to power over 3.2 million average U.S. households. By the end of 2014, this figure is expected to surpass 20GW—more than four times the total amount of solar capacity that existed in the U.S. just three years ago. Of the more than 500,000 homes, businesses, and public entities that have installed a solar energy system, more than 3,700 of those systems are located on public and private Kindergarten through 12th grade (K-12) schools in the U.S. Read more. 
New Report Shows Solar Energy Prices See Double-Digit Declines in 2013 Distributed solar PV system prices dropped by 12 – 19% nationwide in 2013, according to the third edition of a jointly written report on PV pricing trends from NREL and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). In addition, 2014 prices are expected to drop another 3 – 12%, depending on system location and market segment. Industry analysts expect this trend to continue over the next couple of years, keeping the nation on track to meet the DOE SunShot Initiative's 2020 targets. Read the press release and new report here. Overcome Solar Market Barriers with NREL Support Now is the time to take advantage of solar technical assistance, which is free to state and local jurisdictions, planning organizations, public school districts, and publically funded universities. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) experts offer support for a range of solar market development issues, including: renewable portfolio standards, project and program financing, community solar development, incorporating storage with solar PV, value-of-solar tariffs. Fill out and submit the short application by Wednesday, Oct. 29 to be considered for the 2015 program. Nov. 7 Deadline to Submit SunShot Catalyst Video Pitch The SunShot Catalyst prize program is accepting video pitches through our online platform at catalyst.energy.gov. Teams that upload a video pitch by Nov. 7 will be eligible to receive $25,000 in software development services provided by Topcoder. Through an innovative partnership with NREL and Topcoder, teams will have the opportunity to use the Topcoder platform and developer community to create software prototypes. Teams will demo their prototypes before a panel of investors, judges and their peers in May 2015. Up to five winning teams will receive $30,000 on the spot, and up to an additional $70,000 in follow-on funding from DOE as they grow and scale their innovative solar solution. Weigh in on PV Module Recycling Technology by Nov. 14 SunShot intends to understand the current state of recycling technology and the areas of research that could lead to impactful recycling technologies to support the developing PV industry. We are seeking feedback from solar industry stakeholders via this request for information to generate discussion related to planning for the end of life of photovoltaic modules and to create a list of high impact research topics in photovoltaics recycling. The information provided could be used to develop future funding SunShot funding opportunities related to PV recycling. Find the PV recycling questions and submission instructions here. | Work in Solar? 2014 Jobs Census Underway
The survey of solar employers that will inform The Solar Foundation’s forthcoming National Solar Jobs Census 2014 is now open. Take the census survey now and share it with your solar industry colleagues. Webinar: Getting to a Win-win: Distributed Solar and Utility Cost Recovery
Nov. 5 | 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability USA, North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center, and the Meister Consultants Group will present a free hour-long webinar on regulatory and rate design pathways to deeper solar cost reduction relevant to recent discussions on around the county solar fees and net metering. Register. SunShot in the News |
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