'Roadmap' to guide U.S. photovoltaics industry in 21...( Golden Colo. Jan. 20 2000 -- Amer...)

Golden, Colo., Jan. 20, 2000 -- Americans want clean solar electricity. The U.S. photovoltaics industry wants them to have it. Solar-cell manufacturers and suppliers see photovoltaics (PV) producing at least 15 percent of the additional electrical power the United States will need in 2020.

But how will the industry bring down costs, overcome market barriers, increase production and accelerate research and development? The recently released Report of the PV Industry Roadmap Workshop provides a guide.

The report outlines goals and strategies for industry and its R&D partners through 2020. A more detailed roadmap will develop in months to come, with the final results providing a blueprint of research, technology, and market strategies.

The National Center for Photovoltaics (NCPV), which conducts research and development for the U.S. Department of Energy's Photovoltaics Program, coordinated the roadmapping effort. NCPV Director Lawrence Kazmerski of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory applauded the roadmap. "By setting these priorities, the PV industry can work toward a common destination: clean, renewable solar power taking its proper and requisite place in America's energy picture," he said.

The PV industry's mapmakers agreed to this vision statement: "To provide the electrical/energy consumer with competitive and environmentally friendly energy products and services from a thriving United States-based solar-electric power industry."

For that vision to be realized, the roadmap will detail four major goals:

• Maintain the U.S. industry's worldwide technological leadership
• Achieve economic competitiveness with conventional energy technologies
• Maintain a sustained market and PV production growth
• And, make the PV industry profitable and attractive to investors.

Allen Barnett, president of PV manufacturer AstroPower, Inc. of Newark, Del., stresses the importance of a substantial domestic market
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Contact: George Douglas
george_douglas@nrel.gov
303-320-3410
DOE/National Renewable Energy Laboratory
19-Jan-2000