NEW SOLAR OPPORTUNITIES FOR A NEW DECADE
Since the SunShot Initiative began in 2011, solar has made great strides in the United States. At the time, solar power comprised less than 0.1% of the U.S. electricity supply with an installed capacity of just 1.2 gigawatts. Solar now supplies more than 1% of U.S. electricity demand with an installed capacity of more than 30 gigawatts.

SunShot has continuously worked toward its goal of making solar electricity cost-competitive with conventionally generated electricity by 2020, without subsidies. Solar energy has seen tremendous progress. Today, the solar industry is more than 90% of the way to achieving SunShot’s original 2020 cost target of $0.06 per kilowatt-hour for utility-scale photovoltaic (PV) solar power, dropping from about $0.23 to $0.07 per kilowatt-hour.

Building off of and updating the original SunShot vision, SunShot’s goal for 2030 is to cut the levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) from utility-scale solar by an additional 50% between 2020 and 2030 to $0.03 per kilowatt hour, while also addressing grid integration challenges and addressing key market barriers in order to enable greater solar adoption. This goal allows solar to play a significant role in reducing U.S. contributions to climate change.