The DOE's new SunShot Initiative will strive to close the price gap between solar electricity and fossil-fuel based electricity by the end of 2020, announced Secretary Chu today. This will mean bringing the cost of utility scale solar energy systems down by 75% to $1 per watt, such that it can compete with fossil-fuel based electricity in real, unsubsidized terms.
The creation of SunShot is consistent with the Breakthrough Institute's long-held proposals that public investment is necessary to catalyze an American energy transformation, by making clean energy cheap enough to compete with fossil fuels in real, unsubsidized terms. Implicit in the creation of SunShot is the idea that substantial innovations will need to take place across the production cycle to bring down the cost of solar electricity. Resultantly, SunShot will bring together research efforts in government, industry, research laboratories, and academic institutions to drive down costs in every facet of solar energy production. This will start with an award of $27 million to nine new solar research programs that focus on strengthening the U.S. supply chain for solar manufacturing and commercializing cutting-edge PV technologies.
The program plays off of President Kennedy's 1960 "moon shot" goal, which laid out a strategy to regain the American lead in the space race and be the first country to land a man on the moon. Secretary Chu's announcement today echoes the sentiment that the United States is in a race to innovate to make clean energy cheap, declaring, "America is in a world race to produce cost-effective, quality photovoltaics. The SunShot initiative will spur American innovations to reduce the costs of solar energy and re-establish U.S. global leadership in this growing industry".
