The Photovoltaic (PV) Technology Incubator project fosters collaboration between US small businesses and NREL and other DOE laboratories and facilities. Funding is intended to focus attention on high-impact areas that are critical to scaling-up PV technology and meet aggressive DOE goals to reduce the cost of PV-generated electricity and expand installed PV capacity by 2015.
By capitalising on the expert knowledge and technical resources of NREL and other DOE national labs, companies have the opportunity to expand their capabilities, enhance their innovative efforts and benefit from reduced R&D hurdles and project implementation risk. Technical Support and Services are available through NREL and other DOE laboratories/facilities for overcoming R&D hurdles and challenges with these high-impact technologies.
"The PV Technology Incubator helps companies quickly overcome R&D hurdles that are inhibiting the commercialization of their promising technologies," said NREL Senior Program Manager Martha Symko-Davies. “The successful companies are expected to have a significant impact on the rapidly growing US photovoltaic industry.”
NREL will accept responses to this Solicitation in two categories: Tier 1 and Tier 2. (In previous rounds of the PV Incubator program, separate Solicitations for LOI have been issued under “Pre-Incubator” and “Incubator” programs. For this round, NREL is requesting LOI in the following Tier 1 and Tier 2 categories, bringing these two program areas under a single solicitation.) Tier 1 projects will receive up to $1 million through 12 month subcontracts and focus on accelerating the development of innovative PV module-related technologies to the prototype stage. Tier 2 projects will receive up to $4 million through 18 month phased subcontracts and focus on shortening the timeline for companies to transition innovative lab-scale and pre-commercial prototypes into pilot and eventually full-scale manufacture.
The solicitation for Letters of Interest shall be available to view here.
Nanoscience could be key
Meanwhile, Arthur Nozik, a researcher at NREL and professor at the University of Colorado, recently conducted an overview of research into the role of nanoscience in advancing solar technologies. His analysis shows that semiconductor nanostructures have significant potential for converting solar energy into electricity.
In his overview, which is published in a recent issue of Nano Letters, Nozik summarises the current status of several approaches to improving photovoltaics with nanoscience and explains that the advantages of semiconductor nanostructures in solar cells: “higher efficiency and lower cost”. While Nozik concludes that nanoscience could play a crucial role in developing solar power, he warns that there is still some way to go. “Generally, the goal is to produce systems that have efficiencies close to the theoretical limit,” Nozik said. “The theoretical efficiency is about 45%, while the lab efficiency of present quantum dot solar cells is about 3-5%. That’s a big gap; we need to understand what limits the efficiency in these new approaches”.
NREL is the US Department of Energy's primary national laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. NREL is operated for DOE by the Alliance for Sustainable Energy, LLC.
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