US Govt. announces $13million to expand Solar Energy Technologies
October 12, 2006, St Louis, MO, USA:
U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Samuel W. Bodman today
announced more than $13 million to fund new research in solar technologies.
This funding, part of President Bush’s $148 million Solar America Initiative,
will support the development of more efficient solar panels, known as
photovoltaic devices.
“This investment is a major step in our mission to bring clean, renewable
solar power to the nation,” Secretary Bodman said. “If we are able to harness more of the sun’s power and use it to provide energy to homes and businesses, we can increase our energy diversity and strengthen our
nation’s energy security.”
A pillar of President Bush’s Advanced Energy Initiative, the Solar America
Initiative aims to make solar power cost competitive with conventional electricity sources by 2015, by developing materials that convert sunlight directly to electricity. In his 2006 State of the Union address, President Bush
announced the Advanced Energy Initiative (AEI), which seeks to reduce
our dependence on foreign sources of energy.
To achieve this objective, the AEI includes a 22-percent increase in
funding for clean energy technology research at DOE. The President’s
FY 2007 $148 million request for the Solar America Initiative is a
$65 million (78%) increase over the current appropriation, to accelerate
the development of semiconductor materials that convert sunlight directly
to electricity.