That?s the question asked (and answered) by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Steven Chu, who said on Friday that his agency has awarded about $27 million to nine companies working to make solar energy more affordable.
The goal is to reduce solar power by 75 percent by 2019. The result? Solar power ? in one form or another (traditional crystalline silicon solar panels, thin-film panels, or building integrated solar, BIPV) ? would reach parity with fossil fuels (i.e., coal, oil and gas, and yes, Virginia, coal is a fossil fuel by any definition).
What is parity? It?s when a source of energy finally becomes cost-competitive with traditional grid power sources like the fossil fuels mentioned above. For solar energy, it?s the Holy Grail, because once parity is reached, even the oil-addicted Republican right will have reason to choose it.
Grid parity, for solar energy, would be $1 per watt, Secretary Chu said, or about $0.06 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh). Costs currently run between $0.22 and $0.40 per kWh, even for utility-scale solar energy systems.
Secretary Chu?s name for the program ? ?SunShot? (reminiscent of former President John F. Kennedy?s ?moon shot?) ? is catchy, to say the least. The difference is, Kennedy was achieving a first: putting a man on the moon. First Solar has already claimed first place in the parity game by hitting manufacturing costs of $1 per watt as recently as 2008.
According to Chu, the funding will potentially make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of energy without subsidies of any kind. Currently the normal cost of a solar energy system runs about $8 to $10 per watt, with that cost reduced to as little as $3-4 per watt where buyers take advantage of federal, state, and regional (or utility-based) incentives.
As much as $20.3 million in DOE incentives is aimed at solar companies in the following states:
- Massachusetts ? 1366 Technologies Inc. and Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates Inc.
- Minnesota ? 3M
- New York ? Veeco Instruments, Inc.
- Pennsylvania ? PPG Industries, Inc.
In California, an additional four companies vested in cutting-edge solar technologies got $7 million, under the DOE?s Photovoltaic Solar Incubator Program.
Bringing solar energy costs down to $0.06 cents per kWh would indeed make solar energy so ubiquitous that we, as a nation, could start decommissioning our dirty, coal-fired power plants by the beginning of the next decade.
I do have one complaint, though. What is $27 million in today's devalued dollar economy? The Department of Defense spends that for breakfast! A sincere effort to make solar energy cheaper, and therefore ubiquitous, should involve hundreds of millions of dollars. There is no greater form of national security than clean, renewable, homegrown solar energy. Besides, if a CEO is worth $29 million, surely our clean energy future is worth a lot more.
Photo Credit: Tobi K via Flickr CC
Source: http://solar.calfinder.com/blog/solar-funding/75-percent-cheaper-solar/
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