In This Issue:

DOE announces $7M to reduce non-hardware costs of solar energy systems; RENEWABLE ENERGY FOCUS - Clean energy investment may double to $395B by 2020; EPA, DOE to convert brownfields to clean energy sites; DOE asked Solyndra to delay layoffs until after midterms; Infocast's Renewables West 2011 Summit coincides with Senate Bill 2; UC San Diego researchers map California solar hotspots; SunRun, PV Solar Report find solar adoption highest in median income zip codes; CPUC approves five CPV power purchase agreements for SDG&E; SunPower solar plant planned for Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake; California approves Abengoa solar deal despite high cost; Onshore wind energy to reach parity with fossil-fuel electricity by 2016; Mortenson Construction, enXco team up for their 19th wind project; Laidlaw's California biomass power plant purchase final; NOTABLE RENEWABLE ENERGY PROJECTS AND DEALS - German developer wants First Solar to supply California solar farms and Southern California Edison selects Quanta Services for construction of transmission project.

Excerpt from: DOE announces $7M to reduce non-hardware costs of solar energy systems

DOE - Nov 15

Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced up to $7 million to reduce the nonhardware costs of residential and commercial solar energy installations. The funding will be made available through the SunShot Incubator Program, which traditionally focused on solving hardware challenges. It will be awarded in two tiers: Tier 1 includes three to five awards of up to $500,000 with a 20% cost share over 12 months to accelerate the development of innovative non-hardware concepts; and Tier 2 includes one to three awards of up to $5 million with a 50% cost share over 18 months to transition innovative systems and solutions to the demonstration stage and eventually to full-scale deployment. Since 2007, the DOE has invested $60 million in the Incubator program for photovoltaics, accelerating the development of technologies that have attracted more than $1.3 billion in private investment.