DOE investing $71m to expand US solar manufacturing

The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a $71 million investment, including $16 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, in research, development, and demonstration projects to grow the network of domestic manufacturers across the US solar energy supply chain.

The selected projects are meant to address gaps in the domestic solar manufacturing capacity supply chain including equipment, silicon ingots and wafers, and both silicon and thin-film solar cell manufacturing. DOE also intends for the projects to open new markets for solar technologies such as dual-use photovoltaic (PV) applications, including building-integrated PV and agrivoltaics.

The announcement came alongside the White House's decision to remove the tariff exemption for bifacial modules and take additional actions to address what it calls China’s “unfair” trade practices. The White House also recently announced it will increase tariffs targeting China across sectors like steel and aluminum, semiconductors, electric vehicles, batteries, critical minerals, solar cells, and ship-to-shore cranes.

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Silicon Solar Manufacturing and Dual-Use Photovoltaics Incubator funding program

DOE selected three projects for the Silicon Solar Manufacturing and Dual-Use Photovoltaics Incubator funding program which will support the development of technologies to bring silicon wafer and cell manufacturing to the US.

DOE says the investment will enable new solar companies to prove their technologies with the goal of becoming eligible to apply for capital to scale-up manufacturing and potentially speed up their path to commercialisation.

Seven additional projects will aim to advance dual-use PV technologies to electrify buildings, decarbonise the transportation sector, and reduce land-use conflicts. 

The ten selected projects are: 

• Re:Build Manufacturing (Nashua, NH): $1.9 million
• Silfab Solar Cells (Fort Mill, SC): $5 million
• Ubiquity Solar (Hazelwood, MO): $11.2 million
• Appalachian Renewable Power (Stewart, OH): $1.6 million 
• GAF Energy (San Jose, CA): $1.6 million
• Noria Energy Holdings (Sausalito, CA): $1.6 million
• RCAM Technologies (Boulder, CO): $600,000
• The R&D Lab (Petaluma, CA): $1 million
• Silfab Solar WA (Bellingham, WA): $400,000
• Wabash (Lafayette, IN): $1.6 million

Advancing US Thin-Film Solar Photovoltaics funding program

Thin-film PV technologies, such as cadmium telluride (CdTe), and perovskites have potential advantages over the current dominant silicon technology, such as less energy-intensive manufacturing, lower manufacturing costs, simpler supply chains, and greater lifetime energy yield, DOE said.

Of the eight projects DOE selected for the Advancing US Thin-Film Solar Photovoltaics funding program, four will address opportunities to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and bolster the supply chain for CdTe systems. DOE’s Solar Photovoltaics Supply Chain Review identified CdTe as an opportunity to expand domestic production of solar panels.

Four other projects will aim to validate tandem PV devices that pair established PV technologies like silicon and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) with perovskites, a thin-film PV technology that is nearing market readiness and could be manufactured in the United States. One project leverages the United States’ trade partnership with Canada to increase the supply of tellurium in the United States.

The selected projects are: 

• First Solar (Tempe, AZ and Perrysburg, OH): $6 million
• Cubic PV (Bedford, MA): $6 million
• Tandem PV (San Jose, CA): $4.7 million
• Swift Solar (San Carlos, CA): $7 million
• 5N Plus (Montreal, Canada): $1.6 million
• First Solar (Tempe, AZ and Perrysburg, OH): $15 million
• Brightspot Automation (Boulder, CO): $1.6 million
• Tau Science (Redwood City, CA): $2.1 million 

Originally published by Sean Wolfe on renewableenergyworld.com