Following Obama’s likening of renewable energy to the “Sputnik moment,” the Department of Energy (DOE) announced the SunShot Initiative, akin to Kennedy’s moon shot goal, which landed the United States on the moon. Whereas the moon shot program sent the U.S. to the stars, the SunShot program attempts to get the most power out of the sun at the least cost.

When the DOE announced the project on Feb. 4, it said it was investing a total of $27 million into the project, which aims to reduce the cost of solar power by 75 percent to $1 per watt by the end of the decade.

Such a reduction would make solar-based electricity cost roughly 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, more than competitive with other power sources. For comparison, the DOE’s Energy Information Administration reported that in 2010 the average overall cost of electricity in the U.S. was 9.85 cents per kilowatt hour.

The DOE said $20 million would go to five companies and the rest, $7 million, is being parceled out by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) as part of its Photovoltaic Incubator program. The $20 million will go to photovoltaic projects underway at 1366 Technologies, 3M, PPG, Varian Semiconductor and Veeco, according to DOE.

The $7 million is being parceled out to a number of companies in various stages of development. NREL spokesperson Bill Scanlon explained that the companies will only receive the entire award if they meet certain goals on time.

“If they don’t pass this thing called the stage-gate review, then the half of the money they’ve already received, they’ll be able to keep,” he said. Failed projects won’t receive the rest of the award and will be removed from the program.

If they pass the stage-gate review, they’ll receive the full amount with the expectation that the companies will be ready to launch their product within 12 months or 18 months of the initial award, according to Scanlon.

Three companies, Caelux, Solexant and Stion will each receive up to $1 million for their new thin-film photovoltaics. Crystal Solar will receive up to $4 million to develop a new process for creating thin crystal silicon wafers, using significantly less silicon than traditional methods.

Goals under the Photovoltaic Incubator aren’t easy to reach.

“It’s a tough mechanism for them to get through the door,” Scanlon said. “If they don’t reach those goals, we’ll save the money for future incubators.”

He added that, in the past, some companies haven’t made it past the stage-gate review.
“In the first round there were 10,” he said. “Only seven made it through the gate.”

The DOE said its investments in solar in the past have been matched by private investors by a ratio of 24 to 1 and have helped reduce the cost of solar by 60 percent.

If the SunShot Initiative is fruitful, solar power will be the power of choice by the end of the decade.

Image courtesy of NREL.