The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a $71 million investment to advance American solar manufacturing and development, as part of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. The funds, which include $16 million from the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, will be directed towards research, development, and demonstration projects aimed at expanding the network of domestic manufacturers across the U.S. solar energy supply chain.
The selected projects are expected to address gaps in domestic solar manufacturing capacity for supply chain components such as equipment, silicon ingots and wafers, and both silicon and thin-film solar cell manufacturing. Furthermore, these projects will explore new markets for solar technologies like dual-use photovoltaic (PV) applications, including building-integrated PV and agrivoltaics.
"The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to building an American-made solar supply chain that boosts innovation, drives down costs for families, and delivers jobs across the nation," said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm. "Thanks to historic funding and actions from the President’s clean energy agenda, we’re able to deploy more solar power – the cheapest form of energy – to millions more Americans with panels stamped made in the U.S.A."
Among the initiatives being funded are three projects under the Silicon Solar Manufacturing and Dual-Use Photovoltaics Incubator program. This investment aims to enable new solar companies to prove their technologies with a view towards securing capital for scaling up manufacturing.
In addition to this initiative, eight projects have been selected under the Advancing U.S. Thin-Film Solar Photovoltaics funding program. These projects focus on thin-film PV technologies like cadmium telluride (CdTe), perovskites which offer potential advantages over current dominant silicon technology such as less energy-intensive manufacturing processes, lower costs, simpler supply chains, and greater lifetime energy yield.
These efforts are part of a broader push by the Biden-Harris Administration to rapidly deploy clean energy and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. They also align with the Administration’s Justice40 initiative, which aims to ensure that 40% of overall benefits from federal climate and clean energy investments flow to disadvantaged communities.
The DOE has made it clear that selection for award negotiations does not guarantee an award or funding. The department will undergo a negotiation process with applicants before issuing funds, and reserves the right to cancel negotiations and rescind selection at any time.
