US DOE Using its PV Incubator to Push for Solar Innovation

Golden, Colorado, United States –The stale and the satisfied need not apply for the $1 million to $4 million subcontracts awarded through an aggressive photovoltaics (PV) incubator program prodding entrepreneurs to help the United States reach the DOE's SunShot Initiative goal of lowering the cost of utility-scale installations by about 75 percent to roughly $1 per watt by 2017.But those with truly disruptive technologies that can greatly change solar-power economics, will find eager, albeit stern, partners in the PV Incubator program, an initiative of the DOE executed through its National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

By "disruptive" or "differentiated" technologies, scientists or business people are referring to new ways of doing things that overturn the traditional methods and practices, such as the steam engine in the age of sail or e-mail in the age of post-office mail.