SunShot Initiative still kicking: $30 million in solar project funding on the way

By Chris Crowell February 2, 2017

At least for now, the SunShot Initiative is alive and well. The Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) SunShot Initiative announced up to $30 million in new projects to support the integration of solar energy into the nation’s electric grid, while diversifying the nation’s electricity sources and improving the reliability and security of the electric grid. SunShot will fund 13 projects with a total of up to $30 million to develop next-generation grid planning and operation tools that help to integrate more solar power with the grid.

SunShot selected 13 projects under the ENERGISE funding program to enable grid operators to access up-to-the-minute measurement and forecasting data from distributed energy sources and optimize system performance using sensor, communication and data analytics technologies. These projects will help to improve the reliability of the nation’s energy grid by providing utilities with dynamic, automated and cost-effective management of solar and other distributed energy sources. These software and hardware solutions will be highly scalable, data-driven, and capable of fully optimizing system operation and planning.

As part of the Grid Modernization Initiative (GMI), these projects are designed to address not only solar power interconnecting with the grid at scale, but also other technologies like electric vehicles that interconnect with the grid. GMI is an accelerated, Department-wide effort to develop the concepts, tools, and technologies needed to measure, analyze, predict, protect, and control the grid of the future.

These projects build upon current and past research in grid integration technologies that support the widespread deployment of solar energy while maintaining the reliability of the electricity grid.