Attempting to jump-start research on novel solar technology, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) on Monday announced new funding for concentrated solar photovoltaic projects. Awarded under ARPA-E’s Micro-scale Optimized Solar-cell Arrays with Integrated Concentration (MOSAIC) program, the money will go to 11 projects at 10 organizations, including MIT, Xerox PARC, Texas A&M, and the solar manufacturer Semprius.
Concentrated PV (or CPV), which uses lenses and mirrors to focus the sun’s rays on tiny PV cells, could dramatically increase the efficiency and lower the cost of producing electricity from sunlight. MOSAIC’s goal is to “double the amount of energy each solar panel can produce from the sun, while reducing costs and the space required to generate solar energy.”
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