The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) announced the Small Innovative Projects in Solar (SIPS) 2024 funding opportunity. 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.

What:

SIPS Topic Area 1: CSP (7-12 projects, $400,000 each)
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 innovations and solar-thermal fuel systems.

SIPS Topic Area 2: PV (7-12 projects, $250,000 each)
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 aim to significantly lower costs and improve the power conversion efficiency, fielded energy output, reuse and recycling of system components, service lifetime, and manufacturability of PV technologies. 

Who:

1. Institutions of higher education;
2. For-profit entities;
3. Nonprofit entities; and
4. State and local governmental entities and federally recognized Indian Tribes (Indian Tribes)

When:

Submission Deadline for Full Applications: March 6, 2024 at 5 p.m. ET
Expected Date for EERE Selection Notifications: May 2024
Expected Timeframe for Award Negotiations: Summer 2024
Expected FOA Re-Issue Date: Winter 2025

More Information:

DOCUMENTS: DE-FOA-0003308_Small_Innovative_Projects_In_Solar,_Concentrating_Solar_Power_and_Photovoltaics_(SIPS_CSP&PV)_-_Annual 

DE-FOA-0003308 Question and Answer Log: https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/FileContent.aspx?FileID=355b2b11-dddf-4c5a-8b1b-ba24489900d0

APPLICATION FORMS AND TEMPLATES: https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/Default.aspx#

CONTACT INFORMATION: [email protected] and [email protected]