Commercial and Industrial Solar Systems

f. Commercial and Industrial Solar Systems This subtopic solicits applications for innovative technologies that can reduce the installed cost of commercial and industrial (C&I) solar systems, improve their energy yield, facilitate their installation and grid interconnection, and enable additional value streams from them. The C&I solar market has historically trailed the utility and residential segments, and while the utility sector was up 89% year over year in the second quarter of 2020, the nonresidential sector was down 14% in the same period. Many barriers exist in C&I solar that drive that discrepancy, but there is an opportunity to develop new technologies that can enhance the value proposition. For example, the enhanced energy yield offered by tracking technology could be a game-changer in the C&I market, with its tight margins and complex transactions. Tracking technology has revolutionized the utility-scale solar sector over the past decade, with 65% of all U.S. utility-scale PV systems using single-axis tracking technology as of the end of 2019 (and 82% of U.S. utility-scale PV systems installed in 2019 using single-axis tracking technology) [1]. Applications developing technologies for solar tracking on commercial rooftops or carports are also encouraged. Questions Contact: solar.sbir@ee.doe.gov