The government funding will be initially $8.1 m, which could be increaseed to $18.6 m over the next three years as long as the goals set are met. GE's efforts will focus on residential and commercial buildings, responsible for more than 60% of electricity use in America. The company intends to be able to deliver more than 200 MW of GE solar electric product for residential and commercial use.
GE Energy will not be alone in this mission, as a group of other firms companies, universities and researchers are already collaborating on the acceleration of the process by which solar technologies will become cost competitive with traditional sources of energy. GE's alliance includes Renewable Energy Corporation (REC ASA), Solaicx, Xantrex Technology Inc., the University of Delaware's Institute of Energy Conversion, Georgia Institute of Technology, North Carolina State University, Sandia National Laboratories and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
"We believe that GE's participation in the Solar America Initiative will play a significant role in helping the United States solar industry grow rapidly," said Mr Victor Abate, VicePresident for renewables at GE Energy. Under an initiative called ecomagination, launched in 2005, the industrial giant expects to invest $1.5 billion per year in clean technologies (that is about 200 times as much as Solar America's grant), so we can expect to see GE's green contribution in many other ways as well.
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