The Solar America Initiative

The Solar America Initiative (SAI) accelerates the development of photovoltaic (also known as PV or solar electricity) technologies with the goal of making solar electricity from PV cost competitive with conventional grid electricity by 2015. SAI works through partnerships between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and industry, universities, federal, state, and local government, and non-governmental agencies to achieve the goal of lower-cost solar energy.

The mission of the Solar America Initiative is to help lower the cost of solar electricity so that it is cost-competitive across all U.S. market sectors by 2015. The Solar America Initiative ensures domestic production of solar technologies. Decentralized energy supplies such as photovoltaics (PV), diversifies the nation’s electricity portfolio, enhances grid reliability, and reduces the impact of a failure of the U.S. centralized electricity infrastructure. The Solar America Initiative also brings significant environmental gains and reduced water consumption by avoiding fossil fuel, nuclear, and natural gas generation.

By 2015, photovoltaics will:

• Provide 5-10 gigawatts of new electric capacity (enough to power 1-2 million homes) to the U.S. grid

• Avoid 10 million metric tons per year of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions

• Employ 30,000 new workers in the PV industry.

Goals

The primary goal of the Solar America Initiative is to ensure that solar energy technologies will play a growing role in U.S. energy supplies and the U.S. economy by making the technology cost-competitive in the near future.

Secondary goals are to achieve market competitiveness for the following technologies:

• Photovoltaics (PV) by 2015 through government partnerships with industry, universities, national laboratories, states, and other public entities

• Concentrating solar power systems by 2020 through ongoing and new research and development (R&D) activities.

Objectives

Current objectives include the following:

• Fill the industry R&D pipeline for next-generation, low-cost, scaleable products

• Establish a framework for university involvement in the Solar America Initiative

• Calibrate the National Renewable Energy Laboratory research portfolio and role for the future

• Ramp up testing and evaluation for development and qualification

• Catalyze the collaboration on industry-wide issues such as codes and standards

• Expand U.S. policy and regulatory measures.

Approach

The Solar America Initiative is a two-pronged approach emphasizing the following activities:

• (R&D) Research and Development in material sciences and solar manufacturing processes
• Market transformation to remove barriers to the acceptance of new solar technologies in the marketplace.

Solar America Initiative partners include:

• The solar industry

• National laboratories

• Universities

• Federal, state, and city governments

• Non-governmental agencies

• Solar advocacy groups

National laboratories of the U.S Department of Energy (DOE) continue to provide needed R&D.They will serve in key technical roles in areas such as measurements and characterization, reliability R&D, and systems integration.

The Solar America Initiative’s approach represents a fundamental shift in how the DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Program does business. Previously, DOE emphasized solar energy R&D, with a goal of expanding impact through improved component performance. The Solar America Initiative emphasizes industry partnerships and alliances to accelerate market-ready photovoltaics using aggressive cost goals, down-selects, and a new focus on eliminating manufacturing, production, and non-technical marketplace barriers.