The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) funds solar energy research and development projects through competitive solicitations known as funding opportunities, as well as prizes. View all current funding opportunities.

Funding programs encompass at least one research area: photovoltaics (PV), concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP), systems integration (SI), soft costs (SC), manufacturing and competitiveness (M&C), and solar workforce development (WF). For a list of individual projects, view our Solar Energy Resource Database. See a list of our National Laboratory funding programs and learn more about the projects SETO funds with other offices in DOE. Reports resulting from research projects can be found on the Office of Science and Technical Information (OSTI) website.

All active and completed funding programs are in the tables below. This data is subject to change and is for general informational purposes only. SETO does not guarantee that the data is complete or free of error. If you have a question about any of the information below, email solar@ee.doe.gov.

Active Funding Programs

Funding Program
Research Area
Year Announced
Amount Awarded
Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2023 Just-in-Time Lab Call SC 2023 $2.8M
Advancing Equity Through Workforce Partnerships Funding Program WF 2023 $13.5M
Solar and Wind Grid Services and Reliability Demonstration SI 2023 $26M
Solar Manufacturing Incubator Funding Program MC 2023 $24M
Photovoltaics Research and Development (PVRD) Funding Program PV 2023 $29M
Foundational Agrivoltaic Research for Megawatt Scale (FARMS) SC 2022 $8M
Renewables Advancing Community Energy Resilience (RACER) SI 2022 $33M
Deploying Solar with Wildlife and Ecosystem Services Benefits (SolWEB) Funding Program SC 2022 $14M
SETO Fiscal Year 2022 Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power Research, Development, and Demonstration Funding Program CSP 2022 $25M
SETO Fiscal Year 2022 Small Innovative Projects in Solar 2022: Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power and Photovoltaics Funding Program PV, CSP 2022 $6M
SolSmart Funding Program SC 2022 $10M
Connected Communities Funding Program SI, SC 2021 $61M
Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2021 Photovoltaics and Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power Funding Program PV, CSP 2021 $40M
Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2021 Systems Integration and Hardware Incubator Funding Program SI, M&C 2021 $45M
Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2022-24 Lab Call All 2021 $235M
American-Made Solar Prize Round 4 M&C 2020 $3M
Education Materials for Professional Organizations Working on Efficiency and Renewable Energy Developments (EMPOWERED) SC 2020 $6M
Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) M&C 2009-20 $48M
Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2020 (SETO FY2020) All 2020 $130M
Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2020 Perovskite (SETO FY20 PVSK) PV 2020 $40M
American-Made Challenges: Solar Desalination Prize CSP 2019 $5M
American-Made Solar Prize Round 3 M&C 2019 $3M
American-Made Solar Prize Round 2 M&C 2019 $3M
Grid Modernization Lab Call FY19-21 SI 2019 $20M
Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2019 (SETO FY2019) All 2019 $30M
Advanced Power Electronics Design for Solar Applications (Power Electronics) SI 2018 $20M
Advanced Systems Integration for Solar Technologies (ASSIST) SI 2018 $36M
American-Made Solar Prize Round 1 M&C 2018 $3M
Generation 3 Concentrating Solar Power Systems (Gen3 CSP) CSP 2018 $62M
Solar Desalination CSP 2018 $21M
Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2018 (SETO FY2018) All 2018 $12M
Solar Energy Technologies Office FY2019-21 Lab Call All 2018 $62M

Completed Funding Programs

Reports resulting from research projects can be found on the Office of Science and Technical Information (OSTI) website.

Funding Program
Research Area
Year Announced
Amount Awarded
Enabling Extreme Real-time Grid Integration of Solar Energy (ENERGISE) SI 2017 $30M
Innovative Pathways M&C 2017 $3M
Orange Button℠ - Solar Bankability Data to Advance Transactions and Access (SB-DATA) SC 2017 $4M
Photovoltaic Research and Development 2: Modules and Systems (PVRD2) PV 2017 $20M
Resilient Distribution Systems Lab Call SI 2017 $10M
Solar Forecasting 2 SI 2017 $12M
Technology to Market 3 (T2M3) M&C 2017 $25M
Concentrating Solar Power: Concentrating Optics for Lower Levelized Energy Costs (CSP: COLLECTS) CSP 2016 $9M
Grid Modernization Lab Consortium (GMLC) SI 2016 $10M
Photovoltaic Research and Development (PVRD) PV 2016 $17M
Photovoltaic Research and Development: Small Innovative Projects in Solar (PVRD-SIPS) PV 2016 $20M
Solar Energy Evolution and Diffusion Studies 2 – State Energy Strategies (SEEDS2-SES) SC 2016 $21M
Solar Training and Education for Professionals SC 2016 $10M
Sustainable and Holistic Integration of Energy Storage and Solar PV (SHINES) SI 2016 $18M
Technology to Market 2: Incubator 11, SolarMat 4 M&C 2016 $25M
Solar in Your Community Challenge SC 2016 $5M
CSP: Advanced Projects Offering Low LCOE Opportunities (APOLLO) CSP 2015 $32M
Physics of Reliability: Evaluating Design Insights for Component Technologies in Solar 2 (PREDICTS 2) PV 2015 $7M
Solar Market Pathways SC 2015 $16M
Solar Powering America by Recognizing Communities (SPARC) SC 2015 $13M
SunShot National Laboratory Multiyear Partnership (SuNLaMP) All 2015 $230M
SunShot Prize SC 2015 $10M
Technology to Market: Incubator 10, SolarMat 3, SunPath 2 M&C 2015 $23M
Catalyst Energy Innovation Prize SC 2014 $1M
CSP: Efficiently Leveraging Equilibrium Mechanisms for Engineering New Thermochemical Storage (CSP ELEMENTS) CSP 2014 $10M
Next Generation Photovoltaics 3 PV 2014 $14M
Solar Manufacturing Technology II (SolarMat 2) M&C 2014 $25M
SunShot Incubator Program (Rounds 1-9) All 2007-14 $127M
CSP Heat Integration for Baseload Renewable Energy Deployment (CSP HIBRED) CSP 2013 $10M
Diversity in Science and Technology Advances National Clean Energy in Solar (DISTANCE-Solar) PV 2013 $1M
Foundational Program to Advance Cell Efficiency 2 (F-PACE 2) PV 2013 $16M
Grid Engineering for Accelerated Renewable Energy Deployment (GEARED) SC 2013 $15M
National Laboratory R&D CSP 2013 $27M
Physics of Reliability: Evaluating Design Insights for Component Technologies in Solar (PREDICTS) PV 2013 $12M
Rooftop Solar Challenge II SC 2013 $12M
Solar Energy Evolution and Diffusion Studies (SEEDS) SC 2013 $9M
Solar Manufacturing Technology (SolarMaT) M&C 2013 $13M
Solar Utility Networks: Replicable Innovations in Solar Energy (SUNRISE) SI 2013 $8M
Bridging Research Interactions through collaborative Development Grants in Energy (BRIDGE) PV 2012 $8M
CSP SunShot R&D CSP 2012 $56M
National Laboratory R&D SI 2012 $77M
MURI HOT Fluids CSP 2012 $10M
Plug and Play Photovoltaics SI 2012 $25M
Solar Forecasting SI 2012 $11M
Extreme Balance of System Hardware Cost Reduction (BOS-X) SI 2011 $42M
High Impact Supply Chain R&D for PV Technologies and Systems M&C 2011 $20M
Foundational Program to Advance Cell Efficiency (F-PACE) PV 2011 $35M
Next Generation Photovoltaics 2 PV 2011 $24M
Photovoltaic Manufacturing Initiative (PVMI) M&C 2011 $110M
Rooftop Solar Challenge SC 2011 $12M
Scaling Up Nascent PV AT Home (SUNPATH) M&C 2011 $37M
Solar Electric Grid Integration - Advanced Concepts (SEGIS-AC) SI 2011 $26M
Solar Projects to Reduce Market Barriers and Non-Hardware Balance of System Costs SC 2011 $14M
CSP Baseload CSP 2010 $62M
CSP ARRA CSP 2009 $30M
High Penetration Solar Deployment SI 2009 $38M
Solar Outreach Partnership (Solar Ops) SC 2009 $10M
Advanced Heat Transfer Fluids and Novel Thermal Storage Concepts for CSP CSP 2008 $35M
Concentrating Solar Power R&D CSP 2007 $25M