Colorado receives $4.2 million to make solar energy cost-competitive

The U.S. Department of Energy announced Friday that it is investing $4.2 million in a Colorado project "that will help advance affordable, reliable clean energy for U.S. families and businesses." The money is part of the department's SunShot Initiative. The initiative is a collaborative national push to make solar energy cost competitive with other forms of energy by the end of the decade. The University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, based in Boulder, will research methods to understand cloud impact and develop short-term prediction techniques based on its work. The project will also work with the Energy Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association to improve the accuracy of solar forecasts and share the results of the work with industry and academia. "The price of solar panels has fallen dramatically in recent years, but we also need to reduce the cost and time required to actually install them in homes and businesses and help utility companies better integrate renewable energy into the grid," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "Projects like these can help reduce the cost of solar power and make it easier for American families and businesses to access clean, affordable energy." The announcement is part of a broader $8 million investment by the Energy Department to help utilities and grid operators better forecast when, where and how much solar power will be produced at U.S. solar energy plants. The department says enhanced solar forecasting technologies will help power system operators to integrate the cost-competitive, reliable solar energy into the electricity grid and provide clean, renewable energy to U.S. consumers. The Energy Department says that reducing the installed cost of solar energy system by about 75 percent will drive widespread, large-scale adoption of this renewable energy technology and restore U.S. leadership in the global clean energy race