The Solar America Cities awards are part of the Market Transformation activities of the Solar America Initiative (SAI). As part of his Advanced Energy Initiative, President Bush launched SAI in 2006 to make electricity from photovoltaics (PV) cost-competitive with conventional grid electricity (e.g., from coal or natural gas) by 2015.

The research and development (R&D) activities within SAI focus on two primary solar electric technologies for power generation: PV and concentrating solar power (CSP). These activities provide significant opportunities for collaboration among industry, university, and national-laboratory researchers to develop and improve solar energy technologies. SAI R&D activities include:

• Novel PV and CSP devices and processes with potentially significant performance or cost advantages
• Prototype components and systems produced at pilot-scale that demonstrate cost, reliability, or performance advantages
• Private/public partnerships to develop systems that are ready for mass production and can provide cost-competitive solar electricity.

R&D activities are critical to a robust solar market, and so are efforts to actually grow end markets. The SAI market transformation activities strive to reduce market barriers for solar energy technologies by focusing on non-research areas such as:

• Creating or updating codes and standards
• Conducting technical outreach to states and utilities
• Offering education and training
• Streamlining utility interconnection agreements for solar energy systems.

Focusing on market transformation activities ensures that the nation benefits from the energy security and environmental advantages of the accelerated commercialization of solar technologies in the marketplace.

Fact Sheets

The Solar America Cities Awards (PDF 1.28MB) (Download Acrobat Reader)

2008 Solar America Cities Selections (PDF 737KB) (Download Acrobat Reader)