U.S. solar companies to split $168M in grants

Thirteen American solar manufacturers are to share up to $168 million of U.S. taxpayers' money, subject to appropriation from Congress.

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel W. Bodman made today’s announcement while visiting Konarka in Lowell, Massachusetts, one of the selected solar energy projects.

Industry-led teams—mini-"consortiums" of other companies, laboratories, universities, and non-profit organizations around each selected vendor—are to contribute more than 50 percent of the funding for these projects, for a total effective value of up to $357 million over three years.

These cooperative agreements, yet to be negotiated, will be the first made available as part of President Bush’s Solar America Initiative, a component of initiatives announced in his 2006 State of the Union Address. 

Bush's Solar America Initiative aims to bring down the cost of solar energy to make it competitive with conventional electricity sources in the U.S. by 2015.

In addition, the projects announced today are to enable the expansion of the annual U.S. manufacturing capacity of PV systems from 240 MW in 2005 to as much as 2,850 MW by 2010, representing more than a ten-fold increase in three years.

Such capacity would also put the U.S. industry on track to reduce the cost of electricity produced by PV from current levels of $0.18-$0.23 per kWh to $0.05 - $0.10 per kWh by 2015, the DOE predicted.

Companies selected include:

• Amonix - A low-cost, high-concentration PV system for utility markets. This project will focus on manufacturing technology for high-concentrating PV and on low-cost production using multi-bandgap cells.
• Boeing - High-efficiency concentrating photovoltaic power system. This project will focus on cell fabrication research that is expected to yield very high efficiency systems.
• BP Solar - Low-cost approach to grid parity using crystalline silicon. This project’s research will focus on reducing wafer thickness while improving yield of multi-crystalline silicon PV for commercial and residential markets.
• Dow Chemical - PV-integrated residential and commercial building solutions. This project will employ Dow’s expertise in encapsulates, adhesives, and high volume production to develop integrated PV-powered technologies for roofing products.
• General Electric - A value chain partnership to accelerate U.S. PV growth. This project will develop various cell technologies – including a new bifacial, high-efficiency silicon cell that could be incorporated into systems solutions that can be demonstrated across the industry.
• Greenray - Development of an AC module system. This team will design and develop a high-powered, ultra-high-efficiency solar module that contains an inverter, eliminating the need to install a separate inverter and facilitating installation by homeowners.  Research will focus on increasing the lifetime of the inverter.
• Konarka - Building-integrated organic photovoltaics. This project will focus on manufacturing research and product reliability assurance for extremely low-cost photovoltaic cells using organic dyes that convert sunlight to electricity.
• Miasole - Low-cost, scalable, flexible PV systems with integrated electronics. This project will develop high-volume manufacturing technologies and PV component technologies. Research will focus on new types of flexible thin-film modules with integrated electronics and advances in technologies used for installation and maintenance.
• Nanosolar - Low-cost, scalable PV systems for commercial rooftops. This project will work on improved low-cost systems and components using back-contacted thin-film PV cells for commercial buildings. Research will focus on large-area module deposition, inverters, and mounting.
• PowerLight - PV cell-independent effort to improve automated manufacturing systems. This project will focus on reducing non-cell costs by making innovations with automated design tools and with modules that include mounting hardware.
• Practical Instruments - Low-concentration CPV systems for rooftop applications. This project will explore a novel concept for low-concentration optics to increase the output of rooftop PV systems. The project will also explore designs using multi-junction cells to allow for very high efficiency modules.
• SunPower - Grid-competitive residential solar power generating systems. This project will research lower-cost ingot and wafer fabrication technologies, automated manufacture of back-contact cells, and new module designs, to lower costs.
• United Solar Ovonic - Low-cost thin-film building-integrated PV systems. This project will focus on increasing the efficiency and deposition rate of multi-bandgap, flexible, thin-film photovoltaic cells and reducing the cost of inverters and balance-of-system components.

The vendors, as one might imagine, were pleased with the money.

"Public policy incentives make solar power affordable today for many homes and businesses across the country. With SAI funding support, we will expand our R&D investments in product design and manufacturing processes, as well as supply chain and customer delivery efficiencies," said Richard Swanson, SunPower chief technology officer, founder and president.

"With this award, the Department of Energy endorses our teams' integrated approach to radically improve the cost and delivery of solar systems to customers," said Tom Dinwoodie, PowerLight CEO and founder.

At least three more rounds of solar grants are expected from the U.S. government in the coming months: the first for prototype PV modules, the second to develop first-of-a-kind PV cells and the third for universities to provide research support to industry.

"Congress has the opportunity to enact an eight-year extension of the Federal solar investment tax credits as contained in H.R. 550 and S. 590, the Securing America's Energy Independence Act of 2007. When combined with the SAI, this legislation will put solar on the path to become the lowest-cost retail electricity source by 2015 and improve America's competitiveness in the global race for solar power market leadership," said Solar Energy Industry Association president Rhone Resch.