The U.S. Has Announced a Major Incentive to Get Solar Energy

This week the Biden administration has announced its goal to cut solar energy costs by a staggering 60% in a decade.

The administration has an ambitious plan to decarbonize the country’s power sector by the year 2035.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the goal accelerates its previous utility-scale solar cost target by five years.

The DOE has said that for the U.S. power grid to run entirely on clean energy within 15 years, solar energy will need to be installed as much as five times faster than it is today.

The DOE is committed to spending $128 million on technologies including perovskite solar cells. These cells are a cheap alternative to the silicon cells that dominate the market. Funds will also support research on cadmium telluride and concentrating solar technologies.

The funding will also help to extend the lifetime of existing photovoltaic solar plants by improving components like inverters, cables and racks.

“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,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm stated.

In the past decade alone, the cost of generating solar power had dropped over 80%. It now accounts for the largest share of annual new generating capacity in the United States, according to government data.

This week Pennsylvania’s Gov. Tom Wolf announced a new clean energy initiative that will build seven new solar arrays. This is enough to supply about half of state government electricity.

“Pennsylvania has been a national energy leader for more than one hundred years. As we continue to diversify our grid with clean renewable sources of energy, we want to maintain Pennsylvania’s leadership position and bring the associated economic, health and environmental benefits to all Pennsylvanians,” the governor stated.