10 May 2011
The SunShot Incubator program represents a significant component of the US Department of Energy (DOE) business strategy of partnering with US industry to accelerate commercialization of photovoltaic (PV), concentrating solar thermal power (CSP), and balance of systems (BOS) research and development (R&D) and validation.
The goal is to meet the aggressive DOE SunShot Initiative targets for significantly lower installed costs and greater market penetration.
The SunShot Incubator has two tiers of funding. Tier 1 projects will receive up to $1 million each through 12-month subcontracts and will focus on accelerating the development of innovative technologies to commercially relevant, albeit lab-scale, processes at a commercially relevant size. DOE anticipates selecting 3–7 Tier 1 projects for awards. Tier 2 projects will receive up to $4 million each through 18-month phased subcontracts and will focus on shortening the timeline for companies to transition an innovative lab-scale and pre-commercial prototype material, device, module, or system into pilot and eventually full-scale manufacture. DOE anticipates selecting 2–3 Tier 2 projects for awards. This financial opportunity is administered by DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The request for Letters of Intent can be found here.
