The solar industry has recently reached a significant milestone. The 1,000,000th solar energy system in the United States was installed in a home or business. When the Energy Department launched its SunShot Initiative in 2011, there were only 150,000 solar energy systems. This means that if two of your neighbors had gone solar five years earlier, fourteen have followed suit since. Analysts predict the next million systems will be installed in only two years. Solar energy is a growing industry that creates jobs, boosts economic activity, generates tax revenue, and improves American air quality.
We’re celebrating this milestone as part of the Million Strong campaign and reflecting on the many ways SunShot contributed to the spectacular growth of the solar industry. The SunShot Initiative, founded by the Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office, was created to achieve a single goal: to drive down solar costs. We’re 70% towards earning $0.06 per kilowatt hour.
SunShot led the charge in overcoming critical roadblocks which could have stopped the solar industry. SunShot is responsible for the world’s most efficient photovoltaic and concentrating solar technologies. Eight SunShot partners set more than 15 world records in solar cell efficiency since 2011. Energy Department investments have helped to dramatically increase solar efficiency and performance and contribute to a continual drop in solar costs. Solar panels cost less than 1% of what they used to 40 years ago.
Our soft costs, technology to market, and system integration teams are making significant progress in the solar industry. Since 2011, SunShot-supported projects have received nine R&D100 awards. This prestigious award recognizes the 100 most promising technology developments that show commercial promise each year. SunShot’s trademark Incubator Program has demonstrated the power and potential of government-industry partnerships. For every $1 invested by the government into small solar companies through Incubator, these businesses have earned over $22 in private follow-on financing.
The SunShot Initiative of the Energy Department is helping the solar industry to reduce costs, enable technology innovation, and grow the market. This will lead to cost-competitive solar at the end of the decade. Browse some of the projects we have allowed on our map and slideshow.
We’re not stopping there. Solar energy is becoming a more significant part of the grid, which poses new challenges for the solar industry. To continue proliferating, solar’s soft costs- from financing to interconnection- need to drop further. Grid operators must also be able to manage the variable distributed energy load better. The SunShot team is preparing for these challenges while anticipating a future where there will be several million solar installations. We will announce our ambitious plans in the next few weeks.