WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2015 - The Energy Department (DOE) recently announced $22.7 million for 23 projects intended to significantly reduce the costs for solar energy systems across a variety of technologies. The new projects will promote the next generation of products, services and manufacturing processes in order to accelerate deployment and reduce the cost of solar energy across the U.S.
This program combines three programs under the SunShot Initiative, which aims to make solar energy costs competitive with other forms of energy by 2020:
The tools, technologies, and services developed by these new
projects aim to reduce the costs of photovoltaics (PV); tracking systems; PV,
load, and storage integration; grid monitoring; and power electronics, while
cutting soft costs related to customer acquisition, permitting, project siting,
financing, interconnection and inspection. DOE says the private-sector
companies will also help to grow the number of jobs in the domestic solar
industry and increase U.S. solar energy manufacturing capabilities.
“The solar energy industry has been one of the fastest
growing industries in the United States for the past five years. Costs are
falling, deployment is booming, and factories are opening. As of the
second quarter of 2015, total solar installed capacity in the U.S. surpassed
more than 22.7 gigawatts with approximately 785,000 solar projects operating
across the country,” said David Danielson, assistant secretary for Energy
Efficiency and Renewable Energy. “The new projects announced today show the Obama
administration’s continuing commitment to help industry develop and manufacture
new, efficient, and innovative technologies that will help maintain and grow
our country’s solar leadership.”
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