The Solar Energy Industries Association says, We applaud the Administration for continuing to support the President’s Solar America Initiative (SAI) at robust funding levels. The Administration’s FY 2008 budget request calls for $137 million in funding for the SAI, a major new R&D effort to achieve cost-competitive solar energy technologies across all market sectors by 2015. We also support the budget request to fund the Title XVII loan guarantee program with up to $9 billion in funding, which has the potential to fund large-scale innovative solar power projects.
At the same time, the administration’s request funds solar water heating research at just $2 million and concentrating solar power at just $9 million. It is important that Congress recognize the vital contributions that these technologies can make to our energy security, by providing funding for concentrating solar power and solar heating / lighting programs at $25 million and $15 million, respectively.
Moreover, the budget does not include a long-term extension of the Federal solar investment tax credits, which is the single most important policy affecting solar development. We urge Congress to enact an eight-year extension of the Federal solar investment tax credits as contained in H.R. 550. the Securing America’s Energy Independence Act of 2007.
In the budget, the Administration recognized the contributions that solar energy can make to greater energy security. There is a continued need for Federal research to provide a framework and pathway for bringing solar into the mainstream of US energy resources. Robust investment in R&D will improve our competitiveness in a global solar market that is growing at 40 percent annually and will help bring high quality solar jobs back to the US.
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