The United States Department of Energy (DOE) has chosen greater than a dozen photo voltaic analysis and improvement initiatives for $71 million in funding.
“The chosen initiatives will handle gaps in home photo voltaic manufacturing capability for the provision chain together with tools, silicon ingots and wafers, and silicon and thin-film photo voltaic cell manufacturing”, the DOE mentioned in a press launch. “The initiatives can even open new markets for photo voltaic applied sciences similar to dual-use photovoltaic (PV) purposes, together with building-integrated PV and agrivoltaics”.
The provide contains the $27 million Silicon Solar Manufacturing and Dual-use Photovoltaics Incubator Funding Program, which seeks to assist scale back the price of photo voltaic power and develop next-generation applied sciences.
Ten initiatives have been chosen beneath the incubator program. Ubiquity Solar, with the most important quantity of provisional awards at $11.2 million, was chosen for the event of a steady Czochralski (Ccz) methodology for the manufacturing of silicon ingots, a less expensive methodology in comparison with the usual course of in Czochralski. “The group efficiently demonstrated the CCz expertise with small ingots, and this challenge goals to show the method with bigger ingots and wafers utilized in right this moment’s high-efficiency photo voltaic cell manufacturing course of”, the DOE mentioned the challenge in Hazelwood, Missouri.
For a challenge in Fort Mill, South Carolina, Silfab Solar Cells was awarded a provisional $5 million to develop industrial again contact silicon photo voltaic cells with passivated contacts with increased effectivity in comparison with PERC expertise . “The group is growing improvements in a 300-megawatt pilot line, co-located subsequent to a regular n-type cell manufacturing line, to allow the fast scale-up of again contact cell expertise to high-volume manufacturing”, the DOE mentioned. “Advances in photo voltaic cells will embody floor doping, patterning and isolation, and superior metallization to cut back the usage of silver”.
The third highest awardee of $1.9 million, Re: Build Manufacturing, was chosen for a challenge in Merrimack, New Hampshire, to develop Czochralski ingot pullers.
Apart from the incubator program for silicon and incubator options, the awards additionally embody eight initiatives engaged on thin-film PV applied sciences.
Named for $15 million, First Solar is working to enhance CdTe PV module effectivity utilizing a three-dimensional design for PV cell electrical contacts, in a challenge in Perrysburg, Ohio.
Another challenge at First Solar in Perrysburg “to design tandem perovskite and copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) PV modules with 27 p.c effectivity” was allotted $6 million.
Swift Solar will obtain $7 million for the event of “sustainable, excessive effectivity, perovskite-silicon tandem PV modules the place the perovskite layer is made utilizing vapor deposition, a promising methodology for high-volume manufacturing”. The challenge is positioned in San Carlos, California.
The DOE report 2022 states that 84 p.c of PV modules used within the US are crystalline silicon whereas the remaining 16 p.c are cadmium telluride, however the nation has no energetic manufacturing of crystalline silicon ingots, wafers or cells in that yr.
“About 75 p.c of the silicon photo voltaic cells included within the modules put in within the United States are made by Chinese subsidiaries positioned in simply three nations in Southeast Asia: Vietnam, Malaysia, and Thailand”, says the report revealed on February 4, 2022.
From 2018 to 2020, greater than 85 p.c of photo voltaic cells put in within the US will come from overseas, based on a report by the nation’s International Trade Commission on December 8, 2021.
“The Biden-Harris Administration is dedicated to constructing an American-made photo voltaic provide chain that reinforces innovation, lowers prices for households, and delivers jobs throughout the nation,” mentioned Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm in a press release in regards to the new funding.
Project house owners, who additionally chip in with challenge prices along with DOE help, should undergo negotiations with the company earlier than their awards are finalized.
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