As part of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SunShot Initiative, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced a new $60 million investment over three years for applied scientific research to advance cutting-edge concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies.
Funded through the DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, this research supports the DOE's SunShot Initiative, a collaborative national effort to reduce the cost of solar energy 75% to make it cost competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade.
Through this solicitation, the DOE says it seeks to support research into technologies that have the potential to dramatically increase efficiency, lower costs, and deliver more reliable performance than existing commercial and near-commercial CSP systems. The DOE expects to fund between approximately 20 and 22 projects, and encourages industry, universities and national laboratories to apply.Â
This SunShot CSP opportunity seeks to develop innovative concepts that could lead to performance breakthroughs, such as improving efficiency and temperature ranges, and demonstrate new approaches in the design of collectors, receivers, and power cycle equipment used in CSP systems. Each of these subsystems is critical to CSP operation, the DOE says.
More information on applying for funds is available here.
