From energy.gov
The U.S. Department of Energy SunShot Initiative is a national effort to support solar energy adoption by making solar energy affordable for all Americans through research and development efforts in collaboration with public and private partners. SunShot funds cooperative research, development, demonstration, and deployment projects by private companies, universities, state and local governments, nonprofit organizations, and national laboratories to drive down the cost of solar electricity.
When SunShot was launched in 2011, it set a goal for solar energy to become cost-competitive with traditional forms of electricity by 2020 without subsidies. This goal set cost targets at $0.09 per kilowatt hour for residential photovoltaics (PV), $0.07 per kilowatt hour for commercial PV, and $0.06 per kilowatt hour for utility-scale PV. In May 2016, SunShot released On the Path to SunShot, a series of eight research papers that examined the progress made toward the SunShot’s goals. It found that, just five years into the initiative, the solar industry had achieved 70% of the progress toward the 2020 goals, spurring the department to determine new targets beyond 2020.
In November 2016, the SunShot Initiative announced further cost targets to be achieved by 2030: $0.05 per kilowatt hour for residential PV, $0.04 per kilowatt hour for commercial PV, and $0.03 per kilowatt hour for utility-scale PV. These cost targets inform the decisions SunShot makes to spur the country’s solar market and drive deployment of solar energy. As the cost of solar comes down, more Americans can take advantage of the clean, affordable power that solar provides. Learn more about SunShot’s vision and goals.