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January 8, 2025

What's Inside: This recap of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office's (SETO) work in 2024 shares the year's most popular resources; big events; and prizes and funding programs.

Dear Solar Supporter, 

In 2024, we announced more than $476 million in new funding and prizes to advance a wide array of solar innovations. Stay tuned throughout the year for updates on these projects and future funding opportunities. We look forward to seeing your applications!

As we start the new year, we’d like to share some bright spots of our work in 2024. We hope these will excite you about what more we can accomplish together in the year to come.

5 Hottest Solar Resources

Of the hundreds of SETO resource pages, these came out on top in 2024. Check them out for yourself!

1. Homeowner’s Guide to the Federal Tax Credit for Solar Photovoltaics
2. How Does Solar Work?
3. Homeowner’s Guide to Going Solar
4. Federal Solar Tax Credits for Businesses
5. Solar Photovoltaic Cell Basics

2024 SETO Peer Review

In March, SETO hosted the 2024 SETO Peer Review, gathering representatives from active projects and leading solar industry and academic experts to conduct a review of SETO’s portfolio of projects. Reviewers compiled their high-level, strategic feedback, which will support the office in achieving its goals. You can check out the reviews of our six research tracks and download slides and project posters.

SETO at RE+ 2024

At RE+ 2024, an annual clean energy industry conference, SETO hosted workshops, spoke on panels, and participated in education and show floor sessions to highlight the office’s efforts to drive innovation, lower costs, and make it easier to deploy solar power.

Investing in Solar Energy Innovation

Prizes & Competitions

SETO funds prizes and competitions to accelerate innovation, and last year’s competitors did not disappoint. Here are some of the many exciting prize announcements from this past year.

• 2 teams won the American-Made Upskill Prize for the Solar Manufacturing Workforce.
• 6 teams advanced to the final phase of the American-Made Heliostat Prize.
• 2 teams won the American-Made Solar Prize Round 7 at the RE+ trade show.
• 3 teams advanced to the fourth and final phase of the American-Made Solar Desalination Prize.
• 5 teams won the American-Made Solar Data Bounty Prize.
• DOE launched the American-Made Large Animal and Solar System Operations (LASSO) Prize at the Solar Farm Summit and RE+ to explore the “moo”tual benefits of cattle agrivoltaics.
• DOE held the American-Made Solar Photo Competition: Hit Me with Your Sun Shot, which awarded photographers who captured the evolving solar energy industry and celebrated solar energy through a lens of positive change and hope. Check out the winning entries.

Funding Programs

SETO selected 100 projects totaling more than $200 million in funding opportunity announcements and another $217 million in projects at the national laboratories this past year. Here are a few of our funding program announcements from 2024.

• Advancing U.S. Thin-Film Solar Photovoltaics – $44 million
• Materials, Operation, and Recycling of Photovoltaics (MORE PV) – $15.7 million
• Operation and Planning Tools for Inverter-Based Resource Management and Availability for Future Power Systems (OPTIMA) – $40 million
• Renewable Energy Siting through Technical Engagement and Planning (R-STEP™) Round 2 – $11.6 million
• Solar-thermal Fuels and Thermal Energy Storage via Concentrated Solar-thermal Energy – $33 million

Thank you for your interest in our work, and we hope that you continue to stay engaged with us. You can always visit SETO’s website to get up to speed on the latest research. We look forward to continuing to work together to support the growth of solar in 2025 and beyond. Please feel free to reach out with any questions by emailing solar@ee.doe.gov.  

Wishing you a happy and sunny new year!

SETO accelerates the advancement and deployment of solar technology in support of an equitable transition to a decarbonized economy. Learn more about the office's work at our events and webinars.

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