On February 5, 2020 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced up to $125.5 million in new funding for research to advance solar technology through the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) Solar Energy Technologies Office.[1] DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office Fiscal Year 2020 Funding Program (SETO 2020) will help to continue the steady decline in solar costs. In addition, projects will tackle a variety of challenges facing the solar industry, including enabling solar and storage, enhancing cybersecurity protections, manufacturing, developing solar-powered microgrids, and siting solar with agriculture. The solar funding announcement follows a series of other funding opportunities recently announced be EERE. On February 4, 2020, EERE announced up to $43.8 million to advance geothermal research and development, and on January 23, 2020 the office announced $300 million investment in sustainable transportation.[2] [3] [4] These funding opportunity announcements total more than $463 million and is the largest EERE investment made this early in the fiscal year over the past six years.

[1] https://www.energy.gov/articles/department-energy-announces-1255-million-new-funding-solar-technologies

[2] https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/energy-department-announces-188-million-hydrothermal-and-low-temperature-geothermal

[3] https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/energy-department-announces-25-million-enhanced-geothermal-systems-research

[4] https://www.energy.gov/articles/department-energy-announces-nearly-300-million-sustainable-transportation-research