March 31, 2016

Management of the Solar Energy Technologies Office’s Technology to Market Program

The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office established the Technology to Market program as part of its efforts to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of electricity by the end of the decade.  Between April 2011 and March 2014, the program awarded 57 financial assistance agreements totaling about $588.5 million, with the program’s share totaling approximately $215 million.

We found that the program had generally established project management controls for its Technology to Market financial assistance agreements.  However, we identified financial management issues with one recipient, Soitec Solar Industries LLC (Soitec), which warranted attention.  Soitec, the largest for-profit recipient in the program, claimed more than $7 million in project costs on its first two invoices that were not adequately supported or were duplicative.  After we brought these issues to the program’s attention, officials took a number of actions and resolved the questioned costs.

The issues we identified were due, in part, to Soitec’s lack of understanding of Federal financial assistance award requirements.  We also determined that Department guidance on required supporting documentation was inconsistent between postaward information presented to Soitec and the financial assistance agreement.  In addition, we were told that the Technical Project Officer had a very heavy workload of more than 100 awards, which made it difficult to provide adequate oversight.

Topic: Management & Administration