Solar Incubator Program

William Parish from Solar Mosaic, one of nine solar startups chosen to participate in SunShot Incubator 6, discusses his company's project with Energy Secretary Steven Chu at the SunShot Grand Challenge Summit in Denver, Colorado. Photo by John De La Rosa

Fifty-four startups have participated in the SunShot Incubator program since it began in 2007. These DOE solar projects are accelerating technological innovation for:

• Photovoltaic (PV) technologies
• Concentrating solar power (CSP) technologies
• Power electronics
• Balance-of-system (BOS) hardware
• Balance-of-system non-hardware (Soft Costs).

The Incubator program provides early-stage assistance to help startup companies cross technological barriers to commercialization while encouraging private sector investment. Since the program was launched in 2007, $92 million in government funds has leveraged more than $1.7 billion in venture capital and private equity investment, demonstrating a ratio of nearly $20 in subsequent private sector support for every $1 of federal support.

Objectives

The SunShot Incubator program aims to shorten the time between laboratory-scale proof of concept and prototype development and accelerate the process for companies to transition pre-commercial prototypes through the pilot stage into full-scale manufacture. Most projects are cooperative agreements that last from twelve to eighteen months with payment made upon completion and verification of aggressive project deliverables.

Approach

The SunShot Incubator Program uses a two-tiered approach to accomplish its objectives.

• Tier 1 speeds the development of innovative solar hardware and soft cost concepts to the prototype stage. Generally, Tier 1 awards are provided to applicants that have a proof-of-concept or early prototype design or device and need to advance their design or assembly process to produce a commercially-relevant prototype.
• Tier 2 aims to shorten the timeline for awardees to transition innovative materials, devices, systems, or ideas into pilot and eventually full-scale manufacturing, production, or deployment. Successful participation in this program accelerates the transition to full commercial production or product release.

The Incubator program was originally created to support innovative solar startups working to develop and launch transformative PV technologies. Over the past five years, the program has evolved to take an all-inclusive approach to significantly lower the total installed cost of solar energy systems. Visit the Financial Opportunities page for more information about future funding rounds.

Awardees

Current Projects Incubator 7 (2012) AmberWave, Inc. (Salem, New Hampshire) Bandgap Engineering (Woburn, Massachusetts) Enki Technology (San Jose, California) Infinite Invention, LLC (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Princeton Power Systems (Lawrenceville, New Jersey) Qado Energy, Inc. (Summit, New Jersey) QBotix, Inc. (Menlo Park, California) REhnu, Inc. (Tucson, Arizona) Seeo (Hayward, California) Solaflect Energy (Norwich, Vermont) Stion (San Jose, California) Incubator 6 (2012) Clean Energy Experts (Manhattan Beach, California) Clean Power Finance (San Francisco, California)—Tier 1 and 2 awards concept3D Distributed Energy Research & Solutions (Cambridge, Massachusetts) Genability (San Francisco, California) Simply Civic (Parker, Colorado) Solar Mosaic (Berkeley, California) Tigo Energy (Los Gatos, California) Urban Glue (Deephaven, Minnesota) Incubator 5 (2011) Halotechnics (Emeryville, California) Tigo Energy (Los Gatos, California) Incubator 4 (2010) Caelux (Pasadena, California) Crystal Solar (Santa Clara, California)

Past Projects Incubator 5 (2011) Renewable Power Conversion (San Luis Obispo, California) Solaflect Energy (Norwich, Vermont) Incubator 4 (2010) Solexant (San Jose, California) Stion (San Jose, California) Incubator 3 (2009) Alta Devices, Inc. (Santa Clara, California) Semprius, Inc. (Durham, North Carolina) Solar Junction (San Jose, California) Tetra Sun (Saratoga, California) Pre-Incubator (2009) 1366 Technologies, Inc. (Lexington, Massachusetts) Ascent Solar Technologies, Inc. (Littleton, Colorado) Banyan Energy, Inc. (Kensington, California) Crystal Solar, Inc. (Santa Clara, California) EPIR Technologies, Inc. (Bolingbrook, Illinois) Lightwave Power, Inc. (Cambridge, Massachusetts) Luna Innovations, Inc. (Danville, Virginia) MicroLink Devices (Niles, Illinois) SpectraWatt, Inc. (Hillsboro, Oregon) TiSol, LLC (Pasadena, California) Vanguard Solar, Inc. (Sudbury, Massachusetts) Incubator 2 (2008) 1366 Technologies (Lexington, Massachusetts) Innovalight (Sunnyvale, California) Skyline Solar (Mountain View, California) Solasta (Newton, Massachusetts) Solexel (Milpitas, California) Spire Semiconductor (Hudson, New Hampshire) Incubator 1 (2007) Abound Solar (Fort Collins, Colorado) Blue Square Energy (North East, Maryland) CaliSolar (Menlo Park, California) Enfocus Engineering (Sunnyvale, California) MicroLink Devices, Inc. (Niles, Illinois) Plextronics (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) PrimeStar Solar (Golden, Colorado) Solaria (Fremont, California) SolFocus (Palo Alto, California) SoloPower (Milpitas, California)