This funding opportunity announcement (FOA) is being issued by the U.S.
Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy
(EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO). This FOA will advance the Biden
Administration’s goals to achieve carbon-pollution-free electricity by 2035 and
“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”2 to the
benefit of all Americans.
This FOA supports the administration goals laid out above by helping achieve
SETO’s research goals for concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) and
photovoltaic (PV) technologies, while advancing and accelerating market
adoption of solar technologies. Small Innovative Projects in Solar (SIPS) is an agile
funding vehicle for SETO investments with two major aims: to investigate high-
risk ideas that address a major technology barrier or open the possibility of a
novel concept, and to attract new entrants into the applied solar Research and
Development (R&D) community.
Building a clean and equitable energy economy and addressing the climate crisis
is a top priority of the Biden Administration. The Department of Energy is
committed to pushing the frontiers of science and engineering, catalyzing clean
energy jobs through research, development, demonstration, and deployment
(RDD&D), and ensuring environmental justice and inclusion of underserved
communities.
The R&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.
Solar energy technologies are essential to achieving a 100% clean electricity
system by 2035 and a net-zero energy system by 2050. Achieving this transition
requires the industry to achieve the office’s 2030 cost targets, which would halve
the cost of solar power in the decade from 2020 to 2030. There are multiple
pathways to achieve these goals, but all require sustained innovation across
solar energy technologies.
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This FOA aims to broaden the solar R&D community. SETO is interested in
proposals supported by diversity in experience and perspectives. Because SETO
awardees often play a significant role in training future researchers and solar
industry employees, the office requires FOA applicants to submit a plan
proposing actions, within the scope of their projects, that can broaden the
participation of well-qualified members of underrepresented groups on their
teams. The office also encourages applications from members of groups
traditionally underrepresented in engineering and science, and from early-career
researchers who have never applied or been selected for a SETO project award.
This FOA has a streamlined application and review process. A concept paper is
not required. There will be no clarification interviews. The size of the technical
volume has been reduced.
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