The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires the federal government to purchase products and services with certain designated “ecolabels” when they are available. This also applies to solar panels and inverters, but so far only four solar products in total have achieved any level of environmental certification: two solar panels from Qcells and two from First Solar. Because no inverters are certified, government projects can choose any inverter that meets other federal requirements.
“When we talk to manufacturers, we know they have a lot of interest in certification, but they’re not there yet,” said Becca Jones-Albertus, director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO). . ). “We saw a role for the federal government to help companies get there faster and prioritize this.”
SETO is working to expand these eco-friendly options with a new financial incentive. SETO’s American-made Promotional Registry of Inverters and Modules with Ecolabel (PRIME) Award provides funding to manufacturers who take steps to limit the amount of carbon used in the production of solar inverters and modules and meet the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) standard. EPEAT is a global ecolabel for electronics and technology products that measures the social and environmental impact of products from extraction to end of life.
“It requires thoughtful accounting and a real look at the entire supply chain, from raw material extraction to product assembly and making choices to meet those thresholds,” Jones-Albertus said. “Standard practices alone won’t get you there. You have to make very conscious choices in the supply chain to get those labels.”
There are two phases of the competition. In Phase 1, manufacturers who submit a letter of intent to certify up to four PV modules or inverters and provide proof of registration with the Global Electronics Council (GEC) will win $50,000 in cash. In Phase 2, the winners will provide proof of EPEAT certification of their products and citation of the GEC. Manufacturers will win $100,000 in cash for each of their target products that achieve certification, up to a total of $400,000.
In addition to these price incentives, manufacturers can gain an advantage in federal solar projects and beyond by certifying products to this standard.
“We also know that other institutions tend to look to federal government guidelines to determine what types of priorities they should place around their purchasing power as well. This can therefore extend beyond purchases by the federal government,” Albertus-Jones said.
Competitors can sign up now to monitor the competition and stay informed when applications open.
