Through the SunShot Initiative, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) supports the development of innovative, cost-effective solutions that allow increasing amounts of solar energy to integrate seamlessly with the national power grid while mitigating associated risks and reducing system costs. Such solutions will help achieve the SunShot goals by ensuring system reliability and encouraging the widespread deployment of solar technologies, such as photovoltaics and concentrating solar power.
Research, Development, and Demonstration
SunShot's systems integration work focuses on research, development, and demonstration to achieve the SunShot goals through reducing the cost of power electronics and balance of system components, reducing project risks and increasing project bankability, and developing technologies and strategies that enable high penetrations of solar electricity on the national power grid.
Within the systems integration activities, DOE provides funding, through competitive awards, to a range of research and development projects. In addition to projects that advance balance of system hardware technologies such as racking systems and power electronics, DOE funds projects to address the technical challenges associated with integrating high penetrations of solar electricity into the grid. Find a full list of all current systems integration projects as of May 2014 in the SunShot Initiative Portfolio Book.