UW News

December 9, 2019

Brian Johnson receives $4.9 million from U.S. Department of Energy to support solar energy systems

Brian Johnson, assistant professor in the UW Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, has received a $4.9 million grant across three years from the U.S. Department of Energy.

Brian Johnson

Brian Johnson, assistant professor in the UW Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, has received a $4.9 million grant across three years from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The award is part of $128 million in funding for 75 research projects to advance technologies to help lower solar electricity costs, boost manufacturing, reduce administrative red tape and make solar energy systems more resilient to cyberattacks.

The UW project will develop two new kinds of controls for managing solar energy systems that will be immune to communication outages and compatible with small solar energy systems as well as the power grid.

The grants were announced by the Energy Department’s Solar Technologies Office on behalf of the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The project team will collectively provide an additional required $2.1 million “cost share total,” to bring the total to $7 million.

Johnson is the Washington Research Foundation Innovation Assistant Professor of Clean Energy and Electrical & Computer Engineering. He is a faculty member of the UW Clean Energy Institute.

To learn more, contact Johnson at brianbj@ece.uw.edu.

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