This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is being issued by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) to invest in innovative research and development (R&D) that accelerates the large-scale development and deployment of solar technologies to support an equitable transition to a decarbonized electricity system by 2035 and decarbonized energy sector by 2050. Achieving this goal will support the nationwide effort to meet the threat of climate change and ensure that all Americans benefit from the transition to a clean energy economy.
This Small Innovative Projects in Solar (SIPS) FOA solicits seedling R&D projects for both photovoltaic and concentrating solar thermal power technologies. The funding opportunity is designed to streamline the application process and to encourage applicants with a diverse range of backgrounds.
This FOA is expected to be re-issued on an annual basis and will provide applicants the opportunity to submit new applications for consideration. EERE intends to modify this FOA at a future time to solicit applications for subsequent fiscal years.
Deadline: March 6, 2024
Small Innovative Projects in Solar (SIPS) for CSP and PV is an agile funding vehicle for SETO investments with two major aims: to investigate high-risk ideas that address a major technology barrier or open the possibility of a novel concept, and to attract new entrants into the applied solar R&D community. Projects will focus on innovative and novel ideas that are appropriate for 12-18 months of research to determine feasibility.
Topic Area 1: SIPS: CSP
This topic area will support small, focused projects investigating the applicability and robustness of novel ideas in CSP. Responsive concepts include all aspects of CSP plants with thermal energy storage, as well as solar-thermal industrial process heat (SIPH) innovations, and solar-thermal fuel systems.
Topic Area 2: SIPS: PV
Projects in this topic area will focus on new and emerging areas of PV research that can produce significant results within the first year of performance and, if successful, lay the foundation for continued research. These projects should support a significant lowering of costs and focus on improving the power conversion efficiency, fielded energy output, reuse and recycling of system components, service lifetime, or manufacturability of PV technologies.
The proposed prime recipient and subrecipient(s) must be domestic entities. The following types of domestic entities are eligible to participate as a prime recipient or subrecipient of this FOA: 1. Institutions of higher education; 2. For-profit entities; 3. Nonprofit entities; and 4. State and local governmental entities and federally recognized Indian Tribes (Indian Tribes).
An entity may submit more than one Full Application to this FOA, provided that each application describes a unique, scientifically distinct project.
EERE expects to make a total of approximately $6.5 million of federal funding available for new awards under this FOA, subject to the availability of appropriated funds. EERE anticipates making approximately 14-24 awards under this FOA. EERE may issue one, multiple, or no awards. Individual awards may vary between $250,000 (Topic Area 2) and $400,000 (Topic Area 1).