The U.S. Department of Energy, under its SunShot initiative, has granted $12.8 million to Dow Solar, a division of The Dow Chemical Company. The 3-year grant has been awarded to the company to lessen the costs involved in building integrated (BIPV) solar systems.
The goal of this program is to make sure that solar power is a potential source of economic growth, power needs of the nation and expedite extensive solar adoption .
The DOE award will help finance a $22.4-million program that will bring leaders together from the whole solar value chain, including universities, national laboratories, leading electronics companies, national home builders and solar solutions providers, to form a new solar technology that has the capacity to provide reliable solar energy to domestic consumers and reduce the cost of installation.
Dow Solar, replying to the Funding Opportunity Announcement of DOE, “Extreme Balance of System Hardware Cost Reductions,” gathered a unique team of partners, which include Alta Devices, ConSol, DR Horton, Emerson Network Power, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Purdue University, Phobos Energy, The Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering, The National Roofing Contractors Association and Underwriters Laboratories, to fulfill the goals of the proposed project. The company has formed a partnership with these groups to make a path-breaking method to bring down the total expense of solar energy.
The “Transformational Approach to Reducing the Total System Costs of Building Integrated Photovoltaics” program of Dow Solar provides sustainable solutions that will generate new designs and materials to allow the unification of robust and lightweight BIPV shingles. Dow Solar figures out that its BIPV system will trim the installation cost to meet the $2/W target proposed by DOE without subsidies. Dow Solar will be launching the Dow POWERHOUSE Solar Shingles later this year.