Energy Department Awards $2.2 Million to Lower Costs of Solar Energy

The Energy Department on March ten announced backing totaling $2.2 million for 3 California plans to help lower the costs of solar electricity and increase deployment nationwide. As part of the 8th round of the SunShot Incubator Program, the Energy Department is investing in 3 California-based small businesses to continue driving down both the hardware and non-hardware "soft costs" of solar, such as permitting and installation.

The plans include:

• SolarNexus, Incorporated of Berkeley will gain nearly $497,000 to build the industry's 1st integrated ecosystem of software apps that allows disparate software tools to work together, allowing solar contractors and others in the residential and commercial solar markets to install solar at a lower cost.

• Genability of San Francisco will gain $1 million to generate a comparison report that determines the optimum payment project for solar customers using an analysis of projected versus actual solar savings and a monthly savings statement.

• CelLink Corporation of Belmont will gain $704,000 to create a new circuit that will be used to build high-efficiency solar panels. By using less expensive materials and processes, this new circuit could reduce the costs of manufacturing these silicon photovoltaic modules by 10%.

The utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) industry is in excess of 60% of the way to achieving SunShot's target of $0.06 per kilowatt-hour. In the United States, the average price for a utility-scale PV plan has dropped from about $0.21 per kilowatt-hour in 2010 to $0.11 per kilowatt-hour at the end of 2013. According to the Energy Information Administration, the average U.S. electricity price is about $0.12 per kilowatt-hour. See the Energy Department news release.

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