On 3/25/2019, the US Department of Energy selected up to $36 million in research projects that will advance solar energy's role in strengthening the resilience of the nation's electricity grid. The projects will enable grid operators to rapidly detect physical and cyber-based abnormalities in the power system and utilize solar generation to recover quickly from power outages, in many cases without human control. The Department of Energy has a significant presence in the Solar Thin Film Photovoltaics sector due to its research funding of several corporations and universities. As a result, most of its patents are laboratory research-derived and diverse in subject matter. While filings from these projects are often not strategic in scope, they may provide an insight to emerging technology in Thin Film Photovoltaics.
