August 3, 2010 - The U. S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is seeking project proposals as part of recently announced DOE funding to accelerate commercialization of solar energy technologies.

The Photovoltaic (PV) Technology Incubator project fosters collaboration between U.S. 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 capitalizing 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 U.S. 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/ at http://www.nrel.gov/business_opportunities/solicitations_rfps.html

NREL is the U.S. 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.