As part the Biden Administration’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $45 million in funding, including $18 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to support pilot manufacturing of solar components. Specifically, it will support the development of new U.S.-made dual-use solar technologies such as agrivoltaics, building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV), floating solar and vehicle-integrated PV.
Dual-use PV is an exciting, future-focused category that keeps momentum going for solar energy, while reducing the need for a ton of land. To date there have been 63 domestic manufacturing announcements across the solar supply chain since the beginning of the Biden-Harris Administration.
Once these facilities are operational, they will contribute important domestic components needed for the build out of a clean energy industry in the U.S. while also creating jobs, simplifying shipping and logistics, and reducing supply chain uncertainty.
The Silicon Solar Manufacturing and Dual-use Photovoltaics Incubator funding opportunity will:
- Fund up to 12 projects to help establish a network of manufacturers across the domestic solar supply chain focused on polysilicon production, silicon ingots and wafers, solar cells, glass and other module components, and associated manufacturing equipment.
- Fund projects that will aim to open new markets for the emerging dual-use PV sectors, in particular agrivoltaics, building-integrated PV, floating PV, and vehicle-integrated PV.
- Create opportunities to develop domestically made products capable of expanding PV markets and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, through dual-use technologies
— Solar Builder magazine
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.