This annual funding opportunity will award $6.5 million for seedling R&D projects that focus on innovative and novel ideas in photovoltaics (PV) and concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) and are riskier than research ideas based on established technologies.

This funding opportunity is designed to streamline the application process to encourage applications from early-career researchers who have never applied or been selected for a SETO project award. In addition, applicants must submit a plan to broaden the participation of well-qualified members of underrepresented groups on their teams. These efforts will help to achieve the administration’s goal to increase the diversity of those working in applied energy research fields. Diverse teams from universities, federally funded research and development centers, nonprofits, community-based organizations, state agencies, local governments, and solar developers are encouraged to apply.

There are two topic areas in this funding opportunity:

• Topic Area 1: SIPS: CSP – This topic area will support small, focused projects investigating the applicability and robustness of novel ideas in CSP. Responsive concepts include all aspects of CSP plants with thermal energy storage, as well as solar-thermal industrial process heat (SIPH) innovations, and solar-thermal fuel systems.
• Topic Area 2: SIPS: PV – Projects in this topic area will focus on new and emerging areas of PV research that can produce significant results within the first year of performance and, if successful, lay the foundation for continued research. These projects should support a significant lowering of costs and focus on improving the power conversion efficiency, fielded energy output, reuse and recycling of system components, service lifetime, or manufacturability of PV technologies.