Solicitation Title: Request for Information for Photovoltaic Lifetime Project
Funding Number: DE-FOA-0001443
Description:
In return on investment calculations, the degradation and service lifetimes of PV modules are often assumed to be the same across different panels. Due to the typically slow pace of degradation in operating solar modules, often less than 1% (relative) per year, as well as variations in the operating and test conditions, the differences in panel degradation rates are difficult both to measure and compare. Much of the degradation data available to date involves precise measurement of the module performance at only one (end of life) or two (end of life and beginning of life) points in time. If the module’s degradation profile is not linear, a significant miscalculation of levelized cost of energy may result.
The purpose of this RFI is to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders to identify approaches that would expand the dataset publicly available for service lifetime prediction for PV systems; specifically, data that would better inform calculations of the return on investment of existing and future PV installations.
Learn more and see the questions here.
Additional Information:
Responses to this RFI must be submitted electronically to PVReliability@ee.doe.gov no later than 5:00pm (ET) on November 30, 2015. Responses must be provided as attachments to an email. It is recommended that attachments with file sizes exceeding 25MB be compressed (i.e. zipped) to ensure message delivery. Responses must be provided as a Microsoft Word (.docx) attachment to the email, and no more than two pages in length, 12 point font, 1 inch margins. Only electronic responses will be accepted.
Respondents are requested to provide the following information at the start of their response to this RFI:
- Company / institution name;
- Company / institution contact;
- Contact's address, phone number, and e-mail address.
EERE will not respond to individual submissions or publish publicly a compendium of responses. A response to this RFI will not be viewed as a binding commitment to develop or pursue the project or ideas discussed.
EERE Exchange Link: https://eere-exchange.energy.gov/Default.aspx?Search=DE-FOA-0001443&SearchType=