The US Department of Energy (DOE) has revealed a $71 million investment in a series of research, development, and demonstration projects geared towards advancing the country's solar supply chain. This funding, inclusive of $16 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, has been distributed across 18 projects.
Among these initiatives, ten are dedicated to fostering solar innovation. Three of these projects will focus on supporting the development of technologies for onshore silicon wafer and cell manufacturing, while the remaining seven aim to propel dual-use photovoltaic (PV) technologies forward, including advancements in building-integrated PV and agrivoltaics.
The most substantial award within this category, totaling $11.2 million, has been earmarked to assist Ubiquity Solar in developing the Continuous Czochralski Method (CCz) for manufacturing silicon ingots.
Additionally, eight projects are geared towards bolstering US leadership in thin-film technologies such as cadmium telluride (CdTe) and perovskites tandems.
First Solar Inc, a prominent US thin-film solar module manufacturer, has secured two awards from the DOE. The company will receive $6 million for a project focused on designing tandem perovskite and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) PV modules, along with $15 million to enhance the efficiency of CdTe PV modules.
