by Brianna Crandall — April 11, 2011—The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced on April 5 its selection of three recipients for up to $112.5 million in funding over five years to support the U.S. development of advanced manufacturing processes for solar photovoltaic (PV) modules.
DOE’s SunShot Advanced Manufacturing Partnerships are designed to assist the solar power industry to overcome technical barriers and reduce costs for PV installations, help the United States regain the lead in the global market for solar technologies, and provide support for clean energy jobs.
Selected projects will create organizations designed to bring PV companies across the supply chain together in a coordinated environment to address common technology needs.
The selected projects are: the Bay Area PV Consortium (BAPVC), managed by Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley; SVTC Technologies in San Jose, California; and the U.S. Photovoltaic Manufacturing Consortium, managed by SEMATECH.
The investments are part of DOE’s SunShot Initiative, which aims to reduce the total costs of photovoltaic solar energy systems by about 75 percent so that they are cost competitive at large scale with other forms of energy without subsidies by the end of the decade.
Achieving this goal, equivalent to approximately $1 a watt or roughly 6 cents per kilowatt-hour for utility systems, would allow solar energy systems to be broadly deployed across the country, says DOE.
