Fiscal Year 2025 Solar Module and Solar Hardware (SMASH) Incubator | DE FOA 0003460

Opportunity Information: Apply for DE FOA 0003460

The Fiscal Year 2025 Solar Module and Solar Hardware (SMASH) Incubator (Funding Opportunity Number DE FOA 0003460) is a U.S. Department of Energy opportunity administered by the Golden Field Office that uses cooperative agreements to help move promising solar photovoltaic (PV) innovations out of the lab and into real commercial manufacturing. The central problem it targets is the "valley of death" between research and the market: many good PV technologies and manufacturing improvements struggle to attract enough private capital early on to prove they can work at pilot scale, integrate into production lines, and meet cost and reliability targets. By funding pilot-scale testing, demonstration, and manufacturing-relevant validation, SMASH is meant to reduce technical and commercial risk so companies can secure follow-on investment and scale in the United States.

A major theme of the program is strengthening domestic PV manufacturing across the supply chain and reducing U.S. dependence on imported materials, components, and production tools. The intent is not only to support U.S. domestic deployment of solar, but also to build exportable capabilities in solar hardware and manufacturing technology. DOE is explicitly linking these investments to broader outcomes such as job creation, clean energy economic growth, and improved national energy security, reflecting the idea that resilient domestic supply chains matter for both cost stability and long-term deployment.

The funding is organized into three topic areas. Topic Area 1 focuses on crystalline silicon solar modules, specifically early-stage, pilot-scale testing and demonstration of innovative products or processes that can meaningfully increase domestic manufacturing in any segment of the crystalline silicon module supply chain. Importantly, DOE is defining "segments" broadly: it is not limited to the finished module itself, but also covers the manufacturing equipment used in that segment, input materials, process control and characterization tools, and consumables. The emphasis here is that many of these enabling inputs and tools are currently predominantly produced outside the United States, so projects that bring capability onshore, improve manufacturability, or reduce cost and dependency are aligned with the goal.

Topic Area 2 targets the cadmium telluride (CdTe) PV sector, which DOE describes as a valuable and leading domestically rooted renewable technology in the U.S. economy. This topic area is open to essentially the full CdTe module supply chain, including improvements to materials and processes, manufacturing advances, component innovations, metrology and measurement methods, demonstration activities, and end-of-life considerations such as recycling and reclamation. The inclusion of recycling and reclamation signals that DOE is interested not just in making modules, but also in improving circularity, material recovery, and long-term sustainability and supply security for critical inputs.

Topic Area 3 shifts from modules to non-module PV hardware and manufacturing processes, supporting research, development, and demonstration (RampD) intended to de-risk new components and validate a credible path to commercial success. The scope includes structural and electrical components and related tools that can be made domestically and that improve PV system performance, functionality, reliability, or installation simplicity. In practical terms, this topic area is designed to help innovations that make PV systems easier and cheaper to deploy and maintain, while also creating domestic manufacturing opportunities for the balance-of-system hardware that often represents a meaningful portion of installed cost and field labor.

From an applicant and award standpoint, the opportunity is open to small businesses and for-profit organizations other than small businesses. DOE expects to make about 10 awards, with an award ceiling of $4,000,000 per award. The activity category is Energy under CFDA 81.087, and the funding instrument is a cooperative agreement, which typically means substantial DOE involvement during project execution compared with a more hands-off grant. The original application closing date is May 30, 2025, and the opportunity was created on January 8, 2025.

Overall, SMASH Incubator is best understood as commercialization and manufacturing-readiness funding for PV: it is looking for projects that can demonstrate pilot-scale feasibility, reduce manufacturing and integration risk, and strengthen domestic capacity in modules, materials, equipment, metrology, and non-module hardware. The strongest-fit projects will generally be those that can show a clear technical innovation, a realistic scale-up and commercialization plan, and a concrete way the work reduces import dependence while improving cost, quality, throughput, reliability, or installability of PV technologies made in the United States.

• The Golden Field Office in the energy sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "Fiscal Year 2025 Solar Module and Solar Hardware (SMASH) Incubator" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 81.087.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2025-01-08.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2025-05-30. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $4,000,000.00 in funding.
• The number of recipients for this funding is limited to 10 candidate(s).
• Eligible applicants include: For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses.

Apply for DE FOA 0003460

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