Washington, DC - The Energy Department has announced topics for the next round of funding in the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) funding program. SBIR/STTR aims to stimulate technological innovation, use small businesses to help meet federal research and development needs, and foster and encourage participation by socially and economically disadvantaged entrepreneurs.

For the 2018 fiscal year, DOE plans to fund feasibility demonstration SBIR/STTR projects in four solar topics:

• Devices and Methods for De-Energizing a Photovoltaic System – this topic is looking for companies to partner with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory to scale up a prototype for a rapid shutdown mechanism for photovoltaic solar arrays.
• Cybersecurity for Solar Energy Devices – this topic aims to develop new hardware and software solutions that can improve the cybersecurity of electronic devices associated with the generation of solar energy, such as inverters and smart meters
• Peer-to-Peer Energy Transactions – this topic seeks to enable distributed peer-to-peer ledgers for operating and managing electric power distribution networks with large amounts of solar and other distributed energy resources
• Research in Autonomous and Augmented Systems to Reduce Solar Costs – this topic is interested in novel and innovative development and application of automated or human-augmented technologies that can reduce the installed cost of solar energy systems compared to manual processes.

Applications will be accepted starting November 27.

There is an informational webinar on Wednesday, November 29 from 2:00-3.30 p.m. ET. Register here.