The U.S. Department of Energy says that Recovery Act funding programs are on track to help cut the cost of solar electricity in half by 2015, and the cost of batteries for electric vehicles by 70 percent in the same time.
Energy generation from renewable sources is expected to double by 2015, along with manufacturing capacity for U.S. renewable energy industries, the government said.
The announcement Tuesday, led by Vice President Joseph Biden and Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, along with numerous private industry representatives, has the unintended effect of suggesting that solar and plug-in vehicles are too expensive now.
In fact, non-subsidized solar is already cost-competitive with peak retail electricity prices in some places, and with incentives may offer significant bargains to attentive consumers. The same will be true as plug-in vehicles are rolled out in 2011. What the report means is that if such cost reductions are achieved, solar and plug-in vehicles will not only be the cleanest but among the cheapest ways to obtain electricity and to travel just five years from now.
The report is called "The Recovery Act: Transforming the American Economy Through Innovation." It mentions that with more than $787 billion in funding, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is one of the largest investments in the U.S. economy in the nation’s history. More than $100 billion has been invested in programs aimed at innovations in technology and science, including alternative energy and transportation research and development.
The jury is still out, of course, on whether the goals will be achieved. But officials in the solar and electric vehicle industries are at least as confident as the government officials.
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