DOE seeks to cut solar costs by 60 percent by 2030, puts $128M toward effort

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking to ramp up its green energy effort by cutting solar costs by 60 percent within the decade, building on $128 million in investments put toward cutting costs, improving performance, and hastening solar technology deployment.

“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,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said. “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.”

Affordability is seen as a key goal in realizing quicker solar deployment, especially since President Joe Biden has instituted a goal of a 100 percent clean electricity grid by 2035. The DOE has expressed that this would require hundreds of gigawatts of solar energy, being installed at rates five times faster than it is currently.

Thus, the DOE wants to push the current cost of utility scale solar from 4.6 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to 3 cents/kWh by 2025. Not stopping there, it hopes to further lower costs to 2 cents/kWh by 2030.

Among the funds earmarked to aid these larger goals is a $7 million funding opportunity for projects to improve silicon-based PV systems, extending their lifespan by about 20 years and lowering both waste and energy costs. The department will also set aside approximately $63 million in funding for perovskites and cadmium telluride thin films, which are both materials used to make solar cells.

On top of this, $58 million will go toward solar-thermal power projects, which capture heat from sunlight and use thermal energy to spin turbines or power engines that in turn provide electricity. The money will push reliability and performance improvements for affiliated plants, long-duration thermal energy storage devices, the creation of a next-generation solar-thermal power plant to test components, systems and help push plant costs down to 5 cents/kWh by 2030.