The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) PV Manufacturing Research and Development Project is managed by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory with support from Sandia National Laboratories. The Project team has worked for more than a decade in partnership with the U.S. PV industry to reduce manufacturing costs while significantly scaling up production capacity. Over this period, the PV Manufacturing R&D Project has issued several solicitations for partnerships that have resulted in more than 50 cost-shared R&D subcontracts addressing the cost and capacity goals of the Project.

The contracts have typically focused on addressing Project goals in one of three areas: process-specific improvements, module manufacturing, and balance-of-systems (BOS) work. The majority of the DOE investment has targeted module manufacturing.

The partnerships have resulted in a:

• Significant and measurable increase in PV module/systems production capacity
• Decrease in PV manufacturing costs
• Subsequent return on the joint public and private investments facilitated by the Project

Learn more about:

• Research and development progress
• Specific partner research efforts
• The solicitation process and current/latest solicitations

Courtesy of RWE SCHOTT Solar, Inc.

Printable Version