The US Department of Energy just invested $82 million in 19 innovative projects in 12 states to boost US solar manufacturing and recycling.

As part of that $52 million in funding, $10 million will come from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to strengthen the US domestic solar supply chain, and $30 million will be put toward technologies that will help integrate solar energy into the grid.

The investment will help promote cheaper, more efficient solar cells and advance cadmium telluride and perovskite solar manufacturing.

During the Biden administration, more than $5 billion in private-sector domestic solar manufacturing investments have been announced. The US is now on track to increase domestic solar panel manufacturing capacity eightfold by the end of 2024.

The Biden administration has set a goal of achieving a 100% clean electricity grid by 2035 and reaching net zero by 2050 to adhere to the Paris Agreement.

Here’s a sampling of some of the projects, and you can see all of them here on the DOE website.

Solar panel recycling

Eight projects will focus on reducing the cost and increasing the efficiency of panel recycling processes. For example:

• Solar panel recycler Solarcycle received $1.5 million to work with the National Renewable Energy Lab to research how to extract higher-quality and higher-purity metals and materials from recycled solar panels for reuse in domestic solar manufacturing. 
• The University of California Berkeley also received $1.5 million to develop materials to selectively remove a variety of metals from solar PV for reuse and recycling.

Ramping up US solar manufacturing

Two projects in Ohio will use $16 million in funding to work on increasing the domestic manufacturing of cadmium telluride PV technologies, the second most common PV technology after silicon. For example:

• First Solar will use $7.3 million to develop a tandem module combining cadmium telluride and silicon – a new, more efficient residential rooftop solar product.
• Toledo Solar will use $8.8 million to demonstrate the application of semitransparent cadmium telluride solar panels to windows – that is, a potentially whole new market for thin-film solar.

Seven projects will work to bring solutions to the prototype phase and steer them to commercialization. For example:

• Mirai Solar received $1.4 million to further develop and commercialize a foldable PV solar screen with variable shading and output power for controlled environment greenhouses.
• LITESPEED Energy will use $1.6 million to improve floating solar, making it more resilient to wind and waves.

Boosting solar technology innovation

Two projects received $18 million to bring together teams from academia, industry, and national labs to address the issues in perovskite solar cell devices that limit their durability, scale-up, and efficiency:

• The Massachusetts Institute of Technology got $9 million to bring together industry and academic partners to design, build, and test commercially relevant tandem solar cells that combine silicon and perovskite PV materials.
• University of Colorado Boulder got $9 million to design and build tandem silicon-perovskite solar cells, comparing different manufacturing methods for the perovskite layer to minimize cost and maximize efficiency and durability. Four universities, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and three US perovskite companies will work together.

Funding for grid management

$30 million is being awarded to projects that address emerging challenges for grid planning operators and engineers to plan the future of the electric power grid and maintain its daily reliable operation.  

US Senator John Hickenlooper (D-CO) said about today’s DOE solar investment:

We’re accelerating toward a clean energy future by spurring domestic manufacturing, establishing a resilient supply chain, and creating jobs – all with a “Made in America” sticker on it. Giddy-up!

Read more: The US’s largest solar panel maker just got a huge domestic order

Photo: First Solar

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