Slots: An entity may submit only one Concept Paper and one Full Application for each topic area of this FOA. As a nonprofit, USC can only be a prime recipient in Topic Area 3, but can be a subrecipient of this FOA in all topics. See page 23 of the RFA for details.
Deadlines
Internal Deadline: Monday, June 24th, 2024, 5pm PT Contact RII.
LOI: July 19, 2024, 5pm ET
External Deadline: October 7, 2024, 5pm ET
Award Information
Award Type: Cooperative Agreement
Estimated Number of Awards: 12-23
Anticipated Award Amount: Individual awards may vary between $1 million and $5 million.
Link to Award: https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/354748
Process for Limited Submissions
PIs must submit their application as a Limited Submission through the Research Initiatives and Infrastructure (RII) Application Portal: https://rii.usc.edu/oor-portal/. Use the template provided here: RII Limited Submission Applicant Template
Materials to submit include:
- (1) Two-Page Proposal Summary (1” margins; single-spaced; standard font type, e.g. Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman, or Georgia typeface; font size: 11 pt). Page limit includes references and illustrations. Pages that exceed the 2-page limit will be excluded from review. You must use the template linked above.
- (2) CV – (5 pages maximum)
Note: The portal requires information about the PIs in addition to department and contact information, including the 10-digit USC ID#. Please have this material prepared before beginning this application.
Purpose
The U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) is issuing the fiscal year 2024 Solar Energy Supply Chain Incubator Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). Building a clean and equitable energy economy and addressing the climate crisis is a top priority of the Biden Administration. This FOA will advance the Biden Administration’s goals to achieve carbon pollutionfree electricity by 2035 and to “deliver an equitable, clean energy future, and put the United States on a path to achieve net-zero emissions, economy-wide, by no later than 2050,”1 to the benefit of all Americans. DOE is committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering; catalyzing clean energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment; and ensuring environmental justice and inclusion of underserved communities.
The research and development (R&D) and demonstration (RD&D) activities to be funded under this FOA will support the government-wide approach to the climate crisis by driving the innovation that can lead to the deployment of clean energy technologies, which are critical for climate protection. Specifically, this FOA will support the DOE decarbonization goals by advancing innovative solar hardware, software, and manufacturing processes across a broad range of technology readiness levels, from laboratory-scale to pilot-scale testing and prototype demonstration.
In September 2021, DOE released the Solar Futures Study, 2 which provides a vision for solar power’s role in cost-effectively contributing to the nation’s decarbonization goals. According to the Solar Futures Study, solar power will need to grow from supplying 5% of U.S. electricity demand in 2022 to 40% by 2035. This will require the United States to install 30 gigawatts alternating current (GWac) of solar generation capacity each year between now and 2025 and ramp up to 60 GWac per year from 2025 to 2030. With supportive policies, electrification, and aggressive cost reductions, solar installations in the United States could supply 1 terawatt (TWac) of generating capacity for the power grid by 2035 and 1.6 TWac of capacity by 2050.
The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act provides federal tax incentives for solar deployment and domestic solar manufacturing that significantly support SETO’s mission. These include extension of a tax credit that can be claimed for solar installations and a new tax credit for solar component manufacturing in the United States.3 DOE estimates that the Inflation Reduction Act tax credits will expand the deployment of solar energy and help reduce carbon emissions to 40% below 2005 levels by 2030.4
SETO supports solar energy research, development, demonstration, and technical assistance in seven areas—photovoltaics (PV), concentrating solarthermal power (CSP), systems integration, manufacturing and competitiveness, systems strategic analysis and institutional support, solar workforce development, and equitable access to solar energy—with the goal of improving the affordability, reliability, and domestic benefit of solar technologies on the electric grid.5 Achieving this vision requires that the solar industry achieve SETO’s 2030 cost reduction targets.6 In many parts of the country, solar electricity is already the lowest-cost form of new electricity generation capacity, but solar electricity is not yet cost-effective everywhere. There are multiple pathways to achieve these goals, but all require sustained innovation across solar energy technologies.
Visit our Institutionally Limited Submission webpage for more updates and other announcements.