Washington to pump more money into solar start-ups

The Department of Energy has awarded $27 million to fund 10 start-ups active in producing solar power technology, provided they continue to meet certain milestones.

The goal is support these start-ups as they develop photovoltaic technologies that are more efficient than incumbent processes. These methods are more expensive in early stages because they don’t have economies of scale. Once in production, however, they promise to reduce the cost per watt for solar power. That cost is the main barrier to wider adoption of solar.

Recipients include Maryland’s Blue Square Energy, Menlo Park, Calif.’s CaliSolar, Sunnyvale, Calif.’s Enfocus Engineering, Illinois’ MicroLink Devices (web site is down), Palo Alto, Calif.’s SolFocus Inc., Fremont, Calif.’s Solaria, Colorado’s Ava Solar, Pennsylvania’s Plextronics, Colorado’s PrimeStar Solar. and Milpitas, Calif.’s SoloPower.

Each will receive $2 million to $3 million.