U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Announces US$168 Million Initiative to Make Solar Technology Affordable for Everyone by 2015. (March 13, 2007)

    The Solar America Initiative announced on March 8 through U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel Bodman the selection of 13 industry-led solar technology development projects for negotiation for up to US$168 (A$214) million in government funding over the next three years, subject to appropriation from Congress.

The goal is to make solar technology affordable for everyone by 2015, and the DOE has charged 13 consortia of companies to come up with the goods.

Both industrial giants such as General Electric and Dow Chemical together with smaller firms and start-ups will be involved who have agreed to pony up US$189 (A$240.5) million.

"We're tired of people saying [cheap solar] is 10 years away," says Jeff Nelson, manager of Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico told Science, and went on to say that currently the industry is fragmented between companies that make the basic materials, others that build cells themselves, and still others that create electrical parts or mounting hardware; and went on to say getting everyone to cooperate will streamline manufacturing processes although he notes that because of past rivalries, "some [companies] were a little hesitant to work together."

Science reports, "Science policy guru Charles Wessner of the National Academies of Science, an advocate of competitive, agressively managed government-industry partnerships, says the DOE move is a 'good step' and hopes its implementation will be overseen by DOE managers to prevent waste and make steady progress. The Solar Energy Industries Association, naturally, is thrilled; they want the program expanded to solar water heating and solar lighting, which uses fiber optics to deliver light indoors."

It would be pleasing to believe that the innovations in solar power that Australians have developed over the past decade and more would get comparable support to at least give the elephant across the Pacific stiff competition.

For example work at the University of New South Wales' School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering  and ANU's Solar Energy Research just to name two continue to scratch for funds.

In the case of the SPREE the ARC has just awarded the ARC Centre of Excellence for Advanced Silicon Photovoltaics and Photonics at the University of New South Wales a three year extension of funding of $7.2 million.

The ANU Reporter (Autumn 2006) remarked, "Creating commercially viable solar panels was always going to be a challenge, given the cost of raw materials and production, but with government support for solar research and schemes declining, commercial viability is paramount." In fact Origin Energy is commercialising ANU's sliver technology.