Grants for the Production of Solar Panels
- The SunShot Initiative is a program in which the Department of Energy is trying to reduce the cost of solar energy by 75 percent before 2020. "Reaching this goal will re-establish American technological leadership, improve the nation's energy security, and strengthen U.S. economic competitiveness in the global clean energy race," the department says on its website. As part of the program, companies can seek grants and other funding to research, develop, produce and market solar panels and other solar technologies.
- Public utilities, nonprofits and government organizations that produce electricity can receive 1.5 cents from the Department of Energy for every kilowatt-hour of renewable energy they produce, including electricity from solar panels. The program, the Renewable Energy Production Incentive, began in 1992 through the Energy Policy Act. Along with solar, the Department of Energy considers energy that comes from wind, geothermal, biomass, landfill gas, livestock methane, oceans or hydrogen fuel cells to be renewable. The agency's Golden Field Office accepts applications for the incentive.
- Small businesses with ideas and innovations for solar panels can look for grants through the Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Programs. Both programs have three stages for research and development that would apply to a national initiative, such as a push toward more green energy. The programs break into three phases: up to $100,000 for assessing the merits and feasibility of an R&D production, $500,000 for the research and development, then production and commercialization, which must be funded with use private investments.
- Grants are one of several types of financial incentives available to encourage companies to produce solar panels. Loan guarantees, rebates and tax credits are a few of the forms of funding offered at the federal and state levels of government. The Department of Energy in 2010, for example, committed a $1.45 billion loan guarantee to Abengoa Solar in Arizona to help the company build one of the largest solar plants in the world. There are many types of solar incentives with information available through the Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency (see Resources).The database is a partnership of the Department of Energy and other renewable energy organizations.