April 18, 2007—The US Department of Energy (DOE) has competitively selected organizations for the first of several market transformation awards under the president’s Solar America Initiative (SAI). These market transformation activities will complement the recently announced Technology Pathway Partnership R&D awards and aim to lower market barriers to commercialization of solar technology.
New Mexico State University and its partners have been selected by the DOE to lead a new Solar Codes and Standards Working Group. The Working Group will address code development and outreach activities in areas of critical importance to solar market penetration, such as interconnection procedures, net metering, product safety, and international standards coordination.
In addition, DOE has selected the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Clean Energy Group, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, and the Solar Electric Power Association to conduct tailored technical outreach to states and utilities.
DOE has also selected Tucson Electric Power and the Research Foundation of the State University of New York to conduct studies analyzing utility capacity credit valuation of distributed solar. The studies are designed to help utilities measure the impact and value of distributed photovoltaics on the grid.
For more information visit DOE’s Solar America Initiative site.
