DOE announces $20M funding opportunity for Materials, Operation, and Recycling of Photovoltaics
Eligible applicants: states, local governments, tribal entities, nonprofits, forprofits, higher education institutions. Applications are due November 28, 2023
Announcement Type: Funding Opportunity Announcement
Opportunity: Materials, Operations, and Recycling of Photovoltaics (MORE PV) funding opportunity
Overview and Eligible Uses: Through this funding opportunity, the Solar Energy Technologies Office will provide up to $20M over three years for research and development projects to create innovative and practical approaches to increase the reuse and recycling of solar energy technologies.
This FOA is designed to address challenges associated with the rapid deployment of PV system in the United States, including the increasing demands on PV materials, system operation and maintenance, and recycling. The focus of this FOA is to support technology improvement to reduce these challenges with a holistic view of all stages of the PV lifecycle – from the material needs and installation to operation and end of life. This opportunity also supports DOE’s Photovoltaics End-of-Life Action Plan which aims to halve the cost of recycling by 2030 and reduce the environmental impact of solar energy modules at end-of-life.
There are two topic areas in this FOA:
MORE Connection: Connecting PV Materials, Design, Installation, Performance, and End of Life – 3-6 projects, $2M-$4M each
Projects in this topic area will support collaborations of stakeholders who can bring expertise from all four stages of the PV system lifecycle to reduce cost and improve performance of a PV system and its components, including co-located storage. Projects will develop technology and design solutions to optimize the interconnected energy, economic, and environmental impact metrics in pursuit of rapid and sustainable scale up of PV technologies.
Specific areas of interest include
design of PV systems and PV system components that minimizes the use of materials, especially critical materials
development of characterization and non-destructive testing of bill of materials of PV system components throughout their life
development and implementation of holistic design for engineering, procurement, and construction of PV systems that can simultaneously optimize energy, economic, and environmental metrics during the system’s useful life
scalable hardware and software for robust, error-free, low-maintenance tools, components, and methods of installation, quality management and maintenance
Solar Partnership to Advance Recycling and Circularity (Solar PARC) – 1 project, $8M
This topic area will support one partnership to improve materials recovery efficiency and develop safe end-of-life practices for PV system components. This project will focus on technologies and methods to enable low-cost reuse, refurbishing, repair, and recycling of PV materials, and best practices for safe disposal of these materials, including data collection, analysis, and working groups to enable effective collaborations and technology transfer.
DOE is compiling a “Teaming Partner List” to facilitate the formation of project teams for this FOA. This allows organizations that may wish to participate on a project to express their interest to other applicants and explore potential partnerships.
The Teaming Partner List will be available on the EERE eXCHANGE website and will be regularly updated to reflect new teaming partners who provide their organization’s information.
Amount: DOE anticipates making approximately four to seven awards under this FOA ranging from $2M to $8M for a total of $20M
Award Type: Competitive Grant
Eligible Applicants: The prime recipient and subrecipient(s) must be domestic entities. The following types of domestic entities are eligible to participate as a prime or subrecipient of this FOA:
Institutions for higher education,
For-profit entities,
Nonprofit entities, and
State and local governmental entities and Indian Tribes.
Key Dates: Prior to submitting a full application for this opportunity, applicants must submit a letter of intent by September 6, 2023 at 5 p.m. ET and a concept paper by September 13, 2023 at 5 p.m. ET. The full application is due November 28, 2023 at 5 p.m. ET.
An informational webinar will be held on July 26 at 1 p.m. ET.
Key Links:
Funding Opportunity Announcement
For a full list of currently available grant programs under the Infrastructure Law and other helpful tools, take a look at our Helpful Resources page.
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