Congress approves $2.25bn solar R&D funding

Congress put more weight behind solar research and development this week after the House of Representatives last week voted through the Solar Technology Roadmap Act, a bill designed to set out a nationwide R&D strategy and provide $2.25bn in funds for new projects.

The legislation, which will still have to go through the Senate, attempts to address some of the perennial problems faced by solar technologies, such as the ability to forecast solar resources, integrate solar systems to the grid, and store solar energy in a manner that helps to regulate baseload energy production.

However, the main source of interest for the solart industry will be the prospect of additional federal funding for R&D projects. Under the current proposals, $350m will be made available in 2011 for research into a wide range of areas, including photovoltaics, solar hot water, and concentrating solar power. The funding will then rise to $550m by 2015.

Between 2011 and 2015 $300m of this grant money will be available to fund up to 50 per cent of the cost of projects including photovoltaic and solar thermal technology, along with unspecified solar technology projects generating greater than 30MW. The bill will also provide funding to at least one project demonstrating cutting-edge organic photovoltaic cells.

Particular emphasis will be given to projects including business commercialisation plans with the potential to produce equipment at high volumes, the bill said.

In related news, US utility giant Duke Energy announced that it has signed a deal with Chinese clean energy company ENN Group to jointly develop commercial solar projects in the US.

The two firms said the partnership will focus on developing both utility scale solar farms and commercial distributed generation solar projects that generate power closer to the point of consumption in a decentralised manner.