$30 million to ARPA-E projects for hybrid solar energy technologies
US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz has announced $30 million in funding to 12 ARPA-E projects to develop transformational hybrid solar energy technologies that deliver cost-effective power when the sun is not shining.These projects will help advance solar energy beyond current photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies to drive lower-cost, reliable solar energy deployment
In the State of the Union address, President Obama highlighted the United States' growing role in solar as demonstrated in a new industry report which recently found that U.S. utility-scale solar set a record with 2.3 gigawatts installed in 2013.
"The United States is becoming a global leader in solar and we're seeing more and more Americans rely on affordable, clean solar energy to power their homes and businesses." said Secretary Moniz. "The Energy Department is working across the industry to help our country's top engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs bring new solar innovations to market faster. The ARPA-E projects announced are exactly the type of innovative technologies we need to keep breaking through barriers "“ advancing lower cost, highly efficient solar power."
As part of the announcement, Secretary Moniz will award $30 million to 12 projects through ARPA-E's Full-Spectrum Optimized Conversion and Utilization of Sunlight (FOCUS) program, which is aimed at developing new hybrid solar energy converters and hybrid energy storage systems that can deliver low-cost, high-efficiency solar energy on demand.
Under the FOCUS program Sharp Labs of America will receive about $4 million to develop a hybrid solar converter that could enable utilities to provide on-demand and low-cost solar electricity. MicroLink Devices will receive about $3.6 million to develop high-efficiency solar cells that can operate at temperatures above 750°F and can extract the most energy possible from sunlight when integrated with hybrid solar converters.
