DOE Secretary Samuel Bodman announced on November 8th that DOE will invest $21.7 million in researching next generation photovoltaic (PV) technology, as part of the President's Solar America Initiative. A total of 25 advanced PV projects, led by 15 universities and 6 companies, were selected from a wide pool of applicants. DOE will award each of the 25 projects an average of $900,000 over the three-year period from fiscal year 2008 to fiscal year 2010.

The projects all involve research into advanced PV technologies, which have the potential to produce electricity at costs below the current costs of grid-supplied electricity. The research will address a variety of techniques to improve the efficiency of standard PV cells through the use of different materials and construction techniques, or through using more efficient ways to concentrate solar energy. The effort is expected to produce prototype cells and/or processes by 2015, which may be available for commercialization shortly thereafter.