The Solar Desalination funding program will develop novel technologies or concepts using solar thermal energy to assist in creating freshwater from otherwise unusable waters. Thermal desalination is a potential solution to increase water supplies for municipal water and agriculture, and is an important technology to purify water produced from various industrial processes, including oil and gas production.

The SUNSHOT initiative is a national effort to support solar energy adoption by making solar energy affordable for all Americans through research and development efforts in collaboration with public and private partners.

The goal of the ECE (Electrical and Computer Engineering Building project is to achieve Platinum LEED standards and be net zero for outside energy consumption.  To meet that goal, engineers have proposed the use of solar panels atop the ECE building to offset the building’s energy consumption. Complexities of building design have resulted in the building being unable to support a sufficient number of solar arrays to generate the energy required to offset the building’s energy consumption.