September 17, 2015

By William Pentland

On Wednesday, the Obama Administration said it would provide $102 million in funding to support clean energy innovation.

Credit: iceman0

The funds will flow through the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), which will use the bulk of the money to support development of solar power technologies.

"President Obama and Vice President Biden are committed to promoting smart, simple, low-cost technologies to help America transition to cleaner and more distributed energy sources, help households save on their energy bills, and to address climate change," the White House said in a fact sheet outlining the efforts.

The new funding was announced on the same day that Vice President Biden, currently considering a bid for president, spoke at Solar Power International, a major solar industry trade show in Anaheim, California.

"Since President Obama took office, the total cost of a home solar energy system has fallen by nearly 50 percent, while solar deployment is up nearly twenty-fold. Today, solar energy is cost-competitive with traditional energy sources in 14 states," said Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, in a statement. "The projects announced today will help more communities nationwide reach the goals laid out in the Clean Power Plan, while ensuring that America continues to lead the world in clean energy innovation."

The $102 million will be used to fund research projects designed to improve solar panel reliability and performance. It will also support the development of new solar tools, technologies and services that can increase the value provided by solar power to the electric grid. 

In August, while speaking at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, President Obama said that the Energy Department's Loan Programs Office (LPO) would be extended to support eligible distributed energy projects. President Obama's high-profile announcement made it clear that that the Energy Department's Loan Program can extend support to distributed energy projects through existing loan vehicles. In addition, the President said that the LPO is in the process of increasing the amount of funding available for loan guarantees under the existing Renewable Energy and Efficient Energy Projects and Advanced Fossil Energy Projects solicitations by up to an additional $1 billion.

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