On February 26, 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) announced its intention to issue a funding opportunity titled Concentrating Solar Flux to Heat and Power. This potential funding opportunity announcement (FOA) will award up to $30 million for research, development, and demonstration projects that accelerate the large-scale development and deployment of concentrating solar-thermal power (CSP) technology.
CSP technologies offer unique value as a renewable energy resource that can readily deliver high-temperature heat and incorporate energy storage for on-demand solar power.
SETO anticipates making between six and 16 awards under the intended FOA, each ranging from $750,000 to $10 million. SETO encourages diverse teams to apply.
Topic Areas
Topic Area 1: Scalable Concentrating Solar Collectors
This topic seeks innovations to lower costs and demonstrate reliability of solar collectors.
Topic Area 2: Scalable Supercritical Carbon Dioxide (sCO2) Turbomachinery
This topic seeks proposals for scaled up advanced power cycles based on sCO2 that are more efficient than existing steam-based cycles.
Topic Area 3: Scalable Concentrating Solar-thermal Receivers and Reactors
This topic solicits proposals for novel solar receivers and reactors that convert concentrated sunlight into usable thermal energy at high temperatures. Focus areas include developing 90% efficient particle receivers and enabling unique system concepts consistent with DOE’s Industrial Heat Shot, Hydrogen Shot, and Clean Fuels & Products Shot at a levelized cost of heat of $0.02 per kilowatt-hour and levelized cost of electricity of $0.05 kilowatt-hour.
Each topic area solicits proposals to respond to one of three tiers aimed at broadly de-risking concepts at an appropriate technology readiness level (TRL) and preparing the concepts for the next appropriate development effort.
- Tier 1: Subcomponent R&D. Maximum project funding: $3 million. TRL 3-5
- Tier 2: Component R&D. Maximum project funding: $5 million. TRL 5-6
- Tier 3: Integrated System RD&D. Maximum project funding: $10 million. TRL 6-7
Additional Information
- Download the full notice of intent on the EERE Exchange website.
- Learn more about SETO’s Concentrating Solar-Thermal Power (CSP) research.
- Sign up for the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) email list to get notified of new EERE funding opportunities.
- Sign up for the SETO newsletter to stay current with the latest solar office news.
