This is an excerpt from EERE Network News, a weekly electronic newsletter.

November 28, 2012

Energy Department Announces $10 Million for Solar Projects

The Energy Department on November 19 announced a $10 million investment in 10 small business-led projects to speed solar energy innovation. The funding through the Department's SunShot Initiative will go to projects in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. The projects will help reduce the total installed cost of solar energy systems and strengthen U.S. leadership in the solar energy industry.

The projects selected will advance a range of solutions, including improvements in photovoltaics, energy storage, balance of system hardware and power electronics, as well as streamlined connection to the power grid. For example, New Jersey-based Qado Energy is leading a project to commercialize a computing platform that reduces the costs of connecting to the utility grid, decreases wait times for connection, and lowers developer financing costs. And California-based QBotix is building an advanced robotic controller that can travel between solar trackers and automatically adjust them to follow the sun. The SunShot Initiative is a collaborative national effort to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade. See theEnergy Department press release and the list of awardees.