Government Energy Policy, Business and Technology

Obama Administration driving force behind utility-scale PV, says DOE

PV Tech: New analysis from the US Department of Energy (DOE) suggests that the Obama Administration was the pinoeer of utility-scale PV projects in the US, and coincides with a new renewable energy target for civilian agencies to develop 1GW of clean electricity by 2021.

The news also comes simultaneous to the White House announcing its biggest federal investment in clean energy to date via the 210MW Mesquite III solar facility that will provide power to 14 US Navy installations.

The DOE's new update to a 2015 report postulates that early support for solar PV projects from the Administration was what sparked the massive expansion of utility-scale solar in the US. Indeed, the new analysis argues that the loans provided by the DOE to the first five utility-scale solar projects larger than 100MW helped demonstrate the technology as bankable and successful, and contingently led to private financing of utility-scale projects at a ten-fold increase.

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