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U.S. Department of Energy

This is an excerpt from the December 14, 2012: U.S. and Australia collaborate on solar research, hands-on PV workshop for PhDs, and SunShot Prize webinar edition of the SunShot newsletter.

U.S. and Australia Join Forces to Strengthen Commitment to Solar Research

As part of the United States-Australia Solar Energy Collaboration (USASEC), the Australian Solar Institute (ASI), the Australian Minister for Resources and Energy, and the U.S. Ambassador to Australia have announced over $83 million in funding for collaborative solar R&D between U.S. and Australian researchers.

The USASEC, a long-term commitment between the governments of the United States and Australia, was designed to align with the DOE SunShot Initiative. DOE is providing project and program support through access to researchers and facilities at national research laboratories that complement Australian expertise.

The funding includes $33 million for the U.S.-Australia Institute for Advanced Photovoltaics, $35 million to the Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative, and $15.5 million for collaborative research projects. Projects range from developing an Australian solar energy forecasting system to enable the enhanced integration of solar energy generation at all scales into the national grid, to a plug-and-play solar device to simplify the integration of solar energy in hybrid applications with diesel or fossil fuel.

For more information about the projects funded, see the ASI website.