Building on President Obama’s broadbased
plan to cut carbon pollution and
support clean energy innovation across
the country, U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest
Moniz announced $8 million in funding will
go to New York state to support innovative
solar energy research and development.
As part of a total $60 million Energy Department
investment through its SunShot
Initiative, these awards will help lower the
cost of solar electricity, advance seamless
grid integration and support a growing U.S.
solar work force, Moniz said.
“The tremendous growth in the U.S.
solar industry over the past few years is
helping to pave the way to a cleaner, more
sustainable energy future that protects
our air and water and provides affordable
clean energy to more and more Americans,”
said Moniz.
“Responsible development of all of America’s rich energy resources is an important part of President Obama’s Climate Action Plan and will help ensure America’s continued leadership in clean energy innovation.”
Over the last three years, the cost of a solar energy system has dropped by more than 70 percent – helping to give more and more American families and businesses access to affordable, clean energy, officials said. Moniz announced a series of awards to further reduce costs – including soft costs like permitting, installation and interconnection- and to improve hardware performance and efficiency.
He said the Energy Department is awarding about $4.5 million to IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center to develop solar devices that near the theoretical efficiency limits of single junction solar cells, or about 30 percent efficiency. Additionally, the Department is awarding about $1.9 million to GE Global Research to develop stronger, more reliable solar components.
Together, these awards help accelerate breakthroughs in solar energy conversion efficiency and performance – driving further cost reductions.
During President Obama’s first term, the United States more than doubled generation of electricity from wind, solar and geothermal sources. To ensure America’s continued leadership position in clean energy, the President has set a goal to double renewable electricity generation once again by 2020.
As the cost of solar continues to fall and deployment expands, seamless and efficient grid integration will help make variable clean energy resources even more affordable, while giving Americans more control over how they use energy in their homes and businesses, the Energy Department said.
The department is investing about $8 million to help utilities forecast and integrate high levels of renewable energy generation into the grid, while ensuring reliable and affordable power. For example, Albany-based AWS Truepower will help California utilities feed cost-competitive distributed solar directly into the power grid, officials said.
The department said the U.S. solar industry employs about 119,000 workers at more than 5,600 companies across every state. Since 2010, the solar industry has created nearly 20,000 new American jobs.
To support this growing work force and a new generation of clean energy leaders, the Energy Department is providing training for engineers and utility workers as well as student research opportunities.
Moniz said the department is awarding about $15 million to develop power engineering curriculum and launch four regional training consortiums. Interstate Renewable Energy Council will receive about $1.1 million to build a national framework for power systems training and curriculum.
The Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort that aggressively drives innovation to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources by the end of the decade. For more information, visit www.energy.gov/sunshot.