Falling costs in solar power, as well as a $23 billion investment in renewable energy from the Recovery act, means that the United States is on track to double its ability to generate renewable energy by 2012, said Vice President Joe Biden in a new report this week.

The report states that by 2015, the cost of producing electricity from solar and other renewable energy sources would be about half of the current price, placing it on par with electricity generated from conventional sources such as coal and nuclear power. Additionally, the report states that the cost of electric vehicle batteries would drop as well, and combined with the increasing availability of renewable electricity, would make electric vehicles about as expensive as gas-powered cars.

As of 2008, the United States had installed about 28.8 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy generation, mainly in the form of solar and wind power, but by the end of 2011, this is expected to double to 56.6 GW of production capacity. This amount of electricity would be enough to provide power to 16.7 million American homes.

A reduction in the cost of producing solar energy would also make renewable power an option for more Americans. In 2009, energy from using rooftop solar panels cost about 21 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh), but this would decrease to around 10 cents per kWh by 2015. Utility companies would also see a drop in cost, from 13 cents per kWh to just six cents each kWh in the same time frame.

In addition to an increase in renewable energy generation, the manufacturing capacity of renewable energy equipment is predicted to double. Currently, the United States uses about 6 GW of electricity from renewable sources for its manufacturing sector, and this is expected to jump to 12 GW by the beginning of 2012.

Due to an increase in using renewable energy to manufacture solar equipment, as well as using some of the $23 billion from the Recovery Act to produce solar panels and other green energy technology for the world market, the United States is predicted to increase its share of the global market for solar photovoltaic equipment from 6 percent to 14 percent by 2012.