$60 Million Solar Grant by U.S. DOE

The DOE will make available nearly $60M to increase the use of solar power across the country. Secretary Bodman announced: up to $2.5 million for Solar America Cities cooperative agreements, in which thirteen selected cities will receive awards to promote increased use of solar-powered technologies throughout each city; the issuance of a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA) for up to $30 million for universities to research near-term improvements in solar products; and the competitive selection of ten cost-shared Photovoltaic (PV) Module Incubator projects that will receive up to $27 million in DOE funding over 18 months. Click here for more.

Third Party Financing Gains Traction
Morgan Stanley has gotten into the solar third party financing game. Last week, it was announced that Morgan Stanley has agreed to own and finance solar electric power systems totaling more than four megawatts that SunPower will deploy on seven Wal-Mart facilities in California. Wal-Mart will purchase electricity generated from the solar power systems from Morgan Stanley through a long term purchase power agreement. Click here for more.

The Red Herring reports that San Francisco-based solar-energy services company Recurrent Energy received $10 million in a first round of funding from venture capitalists. Like Tioga Energy (see previous post), Recurrent installs, owns, and operates the solar power systems for property owners and sells the solar-generated electricity through a PPA.

...and So Does Thin Film
New Jersey-based Energy Photovoltaics, a manufacturer of amorphous silicon thin-film solar modules has raised $77.5 million in its Series B financing.

According to this story, GE's foray into the thin-film market has it purchasing thin film products from two California-based companies, DayStar Technologies and Miasole, both specialists of CIGS thin-film technology.