Of the total, $45m will be used to quickly move innovative solar manufacturing technologies to market and more than $14m is intended for the development of 15 new projects to help communities develop multi-year solar deployment plans to install solar electricity in homes, businesses, and communities.
The funding, which is a part of the Administration’s effort to double renewable energy generation for a second time by 2020, will help businesses to develop solutions for overcoming technical, regulatory, and financial challenges.
US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said: "As President Obama noted in his State of the Union address, the U.S. brings as much solar power online every three weeks as we did in all of 2008.
"As the price of solar continues to drop, the Energy Department is committed to supporting a robust domestic solar manufacturing sector that will help American business meet growing demand and help American families and businesses save money by making solar a cheaper and more accessible source of clean electricity."
Currently, the US has more than 17GW of solar power, which is enough to power 3.5 million average American homes.
