Two grants totalling US$1.5 million have been awarded to SunPower from the California Solar Initiative Research, Development, Deployment and Demonstration (CSI RD&D) Program to explore the planning and modelling for high-penetration PV on the California transmission and distribution network. Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) is also partnering with SunPower on a second project to research the required hardware and software tools needed for providing bi-directional communication and management between PV systems and utility controls using advanced metering infrastructure.
“Participating in research and development projects under the California Solar Initiative, and partnering with leading solar technologists, will be a benefit to SunPower’s business and broaden the success of solar programs in California,” noted Bill Mulligan, SunPower’s Vice President of Technology and Development.
The CSI RD&D Program is investing US$50 million to fund solar research and demonstration projects designed to reduce the cost and accelerate the installation of solar and other distributed technologies that could employ solar for generation, storage, or that could reduce the use of natural gas.
