System Integration for Solar Technologies

System Integration for Solar Technologies

The Systems Integration subprogram of the Solar Energy Technologies Program (Solar Program) works with the solar industry, utilities, and national laboratories to address the technical barriers to large-scale deployment of solar technologies, specifically distributed and central stations.

As solar technologies provide a larger part of the U.S. electricity supply, it is becoming increasingly important that they be integrated seamlessly into the nation’s electric power grid. This will require new ways of thinking about how the country generates and distributes electricity and new technologies that make it simple, safe, and reliable for solar electricity to feed into the grid.

The Systems Integration subprogram

A 25-megawatt photovoltaic system in DeSoto, Florida, generates enough electricity annually to power about 3,000 homes.
Courtesy of Florida Power and Light

focuses on understanding and removing the regulatory, technical, and economic barriers to integrate high penetration of solar electricity into the electric grid. To accomplish this, Systems Integration efforts encompass the following R&D and outreach activities:

• Solar System Technology Development
• Grid Integration of Solar Technologies
• System Testing and Demonstrations
• Hardware Testing, Evaluation, and Reliability
• Modeling and Analysis for Grid Integration
• Solar Resource Assessment and Forecasting
• Codes, Standards and Regulatory Implementation.

Systems Integration is one of the four subprograms within the DOE Solar Program. Along with Photovoltaics, Concentrating Solar Power, and Market Transformation, the Solar Program subprograms focus on accelerating the advancement of solar energy technologies to make solar electricity cost competitive with conventional forms of electricity.

www.eere.energy.gov