$20 Million US Govt Funding For Perovskite Solar Cell

• DOE has announced $20 million funding to further projects that test and verify perovskite solar technology to make it ready for the marketplace
• It will be disbursed in 3 topic areas, all with an aim to test its long-term durability
• A webinar is scheduled for August 21, 2020 to provide more information on the subject and last date to submit concept papers is September 23, 2020

The US Department of Energy is inviting applications as it plans to disburse $20 million funding to advance perovskite solar PV technologies. The aim is to make this technology competitive and better understand how perovskite solar cells that can be manufactured easily can reach the next level of innovative and efficient solar power.

The announcement has been made through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE). DOE believes for perovskites to be competitive in the marketplace, its long-term durability needs to be 'tested and verified'.

Proceeds can be won for the Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2020 Perovskite (SETO FY20 PVSK) funding program, which will be available for 3 topic areas:

• Device R&D (Efficiency and Stability) to focus on research projects to advance perovskite efficiency and stability at the cell or mini-module scale beyond the current state of the art technology. For this category, projects may explore alternative materials or processes to improve performance or reduce costs and advanced device architecture including tandems. It is open to teams led by academic, DOE National Laboratory or industry researchers. It will award $500,000 to $1.5 million each for 3 to 6 awards in this category.

• Manufacturing R&D category will prefer research projects to address challenges with manufacturing perovskite modules at relevant scale and throughput to ensure process uniformity and repeatability, cell to module conversion losses and encapsulation approaches. Teams must be led by a for-profit or nonprofit business with substantial involvement of established manufacturing and process engineering entities. Eligible teams have a chance to secure between $1.5 million to $2.5 million each for 2 to 4 awards.

• Validation and Bankability Center topic will seek to establish a neutral, independent validation center that can be used to verify perovskite device performance and address acceptance and bankability challenges. It will investigate environmental impacts of perovskite and develop test protocols including accelerated life testing to correlate with long-term field performance. Teams need to be led by a DOE federally funded research and development center or national laboratory. There is a single award of $8 million to $10 million to be won in this category.

"We will continue to invest in early-stage research and development to improve the affordability, reliability, and value of solar technologies on the grid and position the United States as the world's leading manufacturer of clean energy technologies," said US Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette.

The department is holding an informational webinar on August 21, 2020 to elaborate on the subject, and will be accepting concept papers till September 23, 2020. Deadline for full application submission is December 1, 2020.

Details of the proposed funding and timeline of selections are available on the DOE website.