The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) has issued a request for information (RFI) to gather input on the possible areas of technical research that would enable improvements in utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems to support PV plant service life of 50 years.
Reaching SETO’s goal of a levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) of $0.02/kWh by 2030 will require improvements to balance of system hardware design, DC-side fault detection capabilities, and PV plant maintenance strategies. SETO is interested in learning more from operations and maintenance (O&M) service providers, the solar component manufacturing and engineering, procurement, and construction industries, PV system owners, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders. Areas of interest include available data and experiences regarding O&M costs and energy loss due to balance of system component degradation, and areas of research needed for more efficient O&M and increases to energy production throughout a 50-year PV system service life.
Download the full RFI to view the list of questions.
Additional Information
The deadline to submit your response to this RFI is September 30, 2021, at 5:00 p.m. ET.
You must email your response to SETO.RFI.PV@ee.doe.gov as a Microsoft Word (.docx) attachment. Attachments larger than 25MB should be compressed, or zipped, to ensure message delivery. Only electronic responses will be accepted.
Please identify your answers by responding to a specific question or topic if applicable. Respondents may answer as many or as few questions as they wish.
Respondents are requested to provide the following information at the start of their response to this RFI:
- Company / institution name;
- Company / institution contact;
- Contact's address, phone number, and e-mail address.
EERE Exchange Link: Download the RFI to learn more.
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