United States. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced the investment of $22.7 million for 23 projects aimed at significantly reducing the costs of solar energy systems through a variety of technologies.
The new projects will promote the next generation of products, services and manufacturing processes to help drive deployment and reduce the cost of solar energy across the United States. These private sector companies will also help grow the number of jobs in the domestic solar industry and increase U.S. solar manufacturing capabilities. In addition, it furthers the SunShot Initiative's goal to produce solar energy at a cost fully competitive with traditional forms of energy by 2020.
"The solar energy industry has been one of the fastest growing in the United States over the past five years. Costs are going down, deployment is booming, and factories are opening. As of the second quarter of 2015, total installed solar capacity in the U.S. exceeded more than 22.7 gigawatts, with approximately 785,000 solar projects operating nationwide," said David Danielson, assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewables.
The tools, technologies and services developed by these new projects aim to reduce the costs of technologies, including photovoltaic (PV); tracking systems; PV, load, and storage integration; network control; and power electronics – all while reducing soft costs related to customer acquisition, permitting, project siting, financing, interconnection and inspection.
