The Technology to Market subprogram funds projects that investigate and validate groundbreaking, early-stage technology, software, and business models to strengthen early-stage concepts and move them toward readiness for greater private sector investment and scale-up to commercialization. Also known as Innovations in Manufacturing Competitiveness, the technology to market subprogram targets funding gaps that occur in the initial proof of concept, pre-commercial stage.
Today, there is one annual funding program under technology to market that encompasses projects at all stages of technology development with the goal of developing pathways to commercialization for disruptive innovation. Projects focus on a wide variety of topics including photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, and power electronics, as well as soft costs such as customer acquisition, permitting, financing, interconnection, and inspection. This annual funding program is structured to ensure that recipients achieve technical milestones during the course of their research and development project.
The Technology to Market subprogram helps small businesses develop ideas into successful technologies that benefit the solar industry. Other projects help to build a strong clean energy manufacturing sector and supply chain that produce cost-competitive clean energy products and can keep pace with the rising domestic and global demand for affordable solar energy. Additionally, hardware products like advanced inverters and utility-scale tracking systems allow solar energy to be produced as cost-effectively as possible. Cost analysis is a critical component that ties all of this work together to measure the current state of the solar industry. Projects across these areas aim to benefit the solar market and help the industry evolve and thrive. View a complete list of Technology to Market funding programs.
Technology to Market Success Stories
GridUnity—formerly Qado Energy— set out to completely change the interconnection process with a cloud-connected tool that determines a solar...
Learn MoreWhen attracting new solar customers, a savings forecast is at the heart of every solar installer’s pitch. A savings forecast helps potential...
Learn MoreBig box retailers are leading in commercial solar installations in the United States, but solar’s energy-saving benefits aren’t limited to Fortune...
Learn MoreThe commercial and civic benefits of drones are growing—from surveying the eye of a hurricane to helping farmers maintain healthy crops—enabling...
Learn MoreMillions of Americans looking to buy a home have a new resource to help them go solar in the process. Thanks to a partnership between SunShot...
Learn MoreThe vast majority of solar modules are currently made with silicon, as the material is widely available, relatively low-cost, and able to reach...
Learn MoreConsumers who are planning to go solar can now save hundreds – or even thousands – of dollars in the process, thanks to a new invention that was...
Learn MoreEmployees at companies such as 3M, Cisco Systems, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, Johnson and Johnson, National Geographic Society, and Principal...
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