SunShot Initiative

The SunShot Initiative is a federal government program run by the US Department of Energy's Solar Energy Technologies Office. It bills itself as a national effort to support solar energy adoption in order to make solar energy affordable for all Americans. The initiative is a collaboration of private companies, universities, state and local governments, and nonprofits, as well as national laboratories.[1]

The program began in 2011 with the initial goal of making solar energy competitive with traditional forms of electricity by 2020. By 2016, the program achieved 70% of the progress towards the 2020 goal.[1]

The federal government invested $282 million in FY 2015 to fund the SunShot Initiative goal of making solar power cost competitive without subsidies by 2020.[2]

According to the SunShot Q2/Q3 2016 Solar Industry Update report, there is a slowdown in the growth in the distributed generation sector. As of the second quarter of 2016, the top distributed generation installers (such as SolarCity) deployed only 34% of their original projections for 2016. Installers of residential and commercial systems reduced their projections for 2016 and have expressed "uncertainty in their ability to meet projections." This might be due to consumers delaying the purchase of solar systems due to uncertainty in regulations.[3]

Goals and mission

When the program was first launched in 2011 it set a series of goals and cost targets:[1]

In 2016, the SunShot Initiative announced new cost targets that it wanted to be achieved by the year 2030:[1]

According to the program, "These cost targets inform the decisions SunShot makes to spur the country’s solar market and drive deployment of solar energy."[1]

Organization

The SunShot Initiative is divided into five programs:[1]

Within the Photovoltaic program, the initiative supports research and development in order to make efficiency and reliability better.[4] The program works with the solar industry, universities, national laboratories, and other government agencies to advance solar photovoltaics. The team that works within this department tries to "aggressively advanced PV technology."[1]

Below is a spending breakdown of the Soft Costs program for fiscal year 2015:[2]

The initiatives Technology to Market program gives money to private companies that you distinct stages: the prototype stage and the commercialization stage. During the prototype stage, solar companies typically rely on funding from the industry as well as angel investors. At the commercialization stage, which comes usually right before an initial public offering on the stock market, there exists a large funding gap. The Technology to Market program seeks to help private companies fill these funding gaps using taxpayer dollars. In other words, the government is giving grant funds to companies right before the companies go public and potentially reap large profits.[5]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "About the SunShot Initiative | Department of Energy". energy.gov. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
  2. 1 2 FY 2015 Congressional Budget Request, U.S. Department of Energy.
  3. ↑ "Q2/Q3 2016 Solar Industry Update". SunShot Initiative. U.S. Department of Energy. p 12. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
  4. ↑ "Photovoltaics | Department of Energy". energy.gov. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
  5. ↑ "Technology to Market | Department of Energy". energy.gov. Retrieved 2017-02-14.
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