ARPA-E FOCUS driving solar tech beyond PV, CSP

February 9, 2014 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

In his State of the Union address, President Obama highlighted the United States' growing role as a global leader in solar, as demonstrated in a new industry report which recently found that U.S. utility-scale solar set a record with 2.3 GW installed in 2013. Now the Department of Energy is stepping up with the allocation of $30 million to 12 ARPA-E (Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy) projects. The projects are intended to develop transformational hybrid solar energy technologies that deliver cost-effective power when the sun is not shining.

These projects, which are funded through ARPA-E's Full-Spectrum Optimized Conversion and Utilization of Sunlight (FOCUS) program will help advance solar energy beyond current photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies to drive lower-cost, reliable solar energy deployment.

Under the FOCUS program, projects will develop advanced solar converters that turn sunlight into electricity for immediate use, while also producing heat that can be stored at low cost for later use and innovative storage systems that accept both heat and electricity from variable solar sources.

"The United States is becoming a global leader in solar and we're seeing more and more Americans rely on affordable, clean solar energy to power their homes and businesses." said U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz in a statement. "The Energy Department is working across the industry to help our country's top engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs bring new solar innovations to market faster. The ARPA-E projects announced today are exactly the type of innovative technologies we need to keep breaking through barriers -- advancing lower cost, highly efficient solar power."

For more:
- see this report

http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/arpa-e-focus-driving-solar-tech-beyond-pv-csp/2014-02-09