Washington, DC - The U.S. Department of Energy has announced new funding for the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs for Fiscal Year 2019. Within that program, the solar office plans to make about 15 awards to small businesses for high-risk, innovative research on solar technologies with the potential for future commercialization.

Small businesses play a major role in spurring innovation and creating jobs in the U.S. economy. These programs enable small businesses to partner with national laboratories on research and development needed to speed commercialization of national laboratory inventions.

The solar-related topic areas include two technology transfer opportunities from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Partners are needed to:

• Develop hardware and software that can enable the commercial use of a new methodology for photovoltaic (PV) cell monitoring; and
• Test and optimize a new device that can detect dust and other soiling amounts on an installed PV system.

Research-focused topic areas include:

• Innovative storage technologies that can be co-located with solar PV systems and be fully compatible with solar;
• Technologies that improve the ability of solar to quickly recover after extreme events;
• Solar products or system designs that enable and increase the use of non-traditional installation locations like in rural areas on agricultural or multiuse land; and
• Solutions that can advance solar energy technologies by lowering cost while facilitating the secure integration of solar into the nation’s electricity grid.

Please join us for a webinar on December 5 at 2:00 p.m. ET.

Mandatory letters of intent are due December 17, 2018 at 5:00 p.m. ET.

Visit the SBIR/STTR webpage to learn more about the solar-related research topic areas. We look forward to seeing your applications!