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http://www.newenergyworldnetwork.com/renewable-energy-news/by-technology/solar-by-technology-renewable-energy-news/us-invest-8-5m-in-solar-integration-system-development.html

The US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Sandia National Laboratories is investing $8.5m in four projects that have reached the third stage of the country’s Solar Energy Grid Integration Systems (SEGIS) programme.

The department said these investments will be matched at least equally by the initiative’s contractors to support projects totalling more than $20m.
It said the selections are part of its ongoing work to improve the country’s electrical grid reliability as solar energy technologies reach cost-competitiveness with conventional sources of electricity.
‘Continuing to support solar and grid technologies is necessary in order for America to maintain its competitive edge in the clean energy industries,’ said US Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
‘These types of projects will help ensure that our efforts to advance renewable energy and support the modernisation of our electrical grid are coordinated and integrated.’
Initiated in 2008, the SEGIS programme is a partnership between the DOE, Sandia National Laboratories, power utilities and universities.
Projects under it will look into how commercialise intelligent system controls and how to integrate expanded solar resources onto the grid.
Those awarded grants under this third round of the initiative include the University of Central Florida’s Florida Solar Energy Center partnership for a project that focuses on the implementation of shared inverters, which secured $660,329.
A Petra Solar, PSE&G, PEPCO Holdings, BP Solar partnership also involving the university received more than $2.7m for a project addressing utility-grid interactivity.
A Princeton Power consortium that includes First Energy and International Battery received the largest award to help it address the final details of a demand response inverter design for the demonstration stage.
PVPowered and partners secured more than $2.4m for a project focusing on next-generation controls and communication technologies that enable PV systems to communicate with power utilities.