June 29, 2007—The US Department of Energy (DOE) recently announced the availability of nearly $60 million to increase the use of solar power across the country. The awards are part of President Bush’s Solar America Initiative (SAI), which seeks to make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional sources of electricity by 2015.
DOE announced three types of awards: up to $2.5 million for Solar America Cities cooperative agreements, in which thirteen selected cities will receive awards to promote increased use of solar-powered technologies throughout each city; the issuance of a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for up to $30 million for universities to research near-term improvements in solar products; and the competitive selection of ten cost-shared Photovoltaic (PV) Module Incubator projects that will receive up to $27 million in DOE funding over 18 months.
The 2007 Solar America Cities are: Ann Arbor, MI; Austin, TX; Berkeley, CA; Boston, MA; Madison, WI; New Orleans, LA; New York, NY; Pittsburgh, PA; Portland, OR; Salt Lake City, UT; San Diego, CA; San Francisco, CA; and Tucson, AZ.
The companies selected to participate in the PV Incubator Projects are: AVA Solar (Fort Collins, CO); Blue Square Energy (North East, MD); CaliSolar (Menlo Park, CA); EnFocus Engineering (Sunnyvale, CA); MicroLink Devices (Niles, IL); Plextronics (Pittsburgh, PA); PrimeStar Solar (Golden, CO); Solaria (Fremont, CA); SolFocus (Palo Alto, CA); and SoloPower (Milpitas, CA).
For more information on the awards, funding opportunities, and additional facts, visit DOE’s Solar America Initiative Web site.
