The US wants to make Solar Energy cheaper by 60 percent

If you want to jump on the solar energy trend but find the cost prohibitive, help is on the way! The United State government has pledged to slash the cost of solar energy by 60%.

To achieve this goal, the government has announced a ten year plan. It is part of the master plan to achieve zero carbon emission in the country’s power sector by 2035.

The Department of Energy wants to speed up the installation of solar energy by 500 percent to meet the 2035 deadline. The government has earmarked $120 million to develop new solar technologies, including new and less expensive alternatives to the popular silicon cells. Attention will also be given to efforts to extend the useful lifetime of photovoltaic solar facilities already in existence.

$3 million from the fund would be used to organize a competition for entrepreneurs seeking to commercialize new solar technologies. They will vie for seed funding for their business ideas.

Solar energy is already cheaper than coal of fossil fuel, as pointed out by Jennifer  M Granholm, Secretary of Energy: ““In many parts of the country, solar is already cheaper than coal and other fossil fuels, and with more innovation we can cut the cost again by more than half within the decade”

She also touched on the benefits of the initiative: “This first burst of funding will help us add even more affordable clean energy to the grid, jobs to communities across the country, and will put us on the fast track toward President Biden’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2035.”

Solar energy has never been as popular, with prices already dropping by more than 80 percent in the last 10 years. It is now responsible for the highest share of new power generation projects across the country. It is also one of the sectors with the fastest growing job rates.

Energy consumers won’t need to wait a whole decade before enjoying price drop though. By 2025, the federal plan calls for the price per kWh to have dropped to 3 cents, from the current 4.6 cents. And based on antecedents, there is little reason to doubt the Department of Energy can achieve the goal as it had done so in the past, 2017 precisely, with years to spare.