WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it will provide up to $60 million for solar energy research. Up to $2.5 million will go to 13 selected cities to promote the use of solar technologies in each city, under DOE's Solar America Cities cooperative agreements. In addition, DOE released a funding opportunity announcement as part of its Solar America Initiative, offering universities up to $30 million to research near-term improvements in solar cell technologies.

DOE will also award up to $27 million to 10 competitively selected, cost-shared Photovoltaic Module Incubator projects at businesses located in California, Colorado, Illinois, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. These 10 businesses will address the challenges related to reducing cost, improving performance, and expanding manufacturing capacity of innovative solar photovoltaic technologies to move from small-scale to pilot production.

Publication date: 07/02/2007