The Future of Solar Energy – New Report from MIT

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. May 5, 2015 – Solar energy holds the best potential for meeting humanity’s future longterm energy needs while cutting greenhouse gas emissions – but to realize this potential will require increased emphasis on developing lower-cost technologies and more effective deployment policy, says a comprehensive new study on The Future of Solar Energy released by The MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI).

“Our objective has been to assess solar energy’s current and potential competitive position and to identify changes in US government policies that could more efficiently and effectively support its massive deployment over the long-term, which we view as necessary,” said Robert Armstrong, Director, MITEI.

The study’s chair, Richard Schmalensee, Howard W. Johnson Professor of Economics and Management Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management, added “What the study shows is that our focus needs to shift toward new technologies and policies that have the potential to make solar a compelling economic option.”

“A policy of pricing CO2 emissions will reduce those emissions at least cost. But until Congress is willing to adopt a serious carbon pricing regime, the risks and challenges posed by global climate change, combined with solar energy’s potential to play a major role in managing those risks and challenges, create a powerful rationale for sustaining and refi ning government efforts to support solar energy technology using the most effi cient available policies.”

The Future of Solar Energy reflects on the technical, commercial and policy dimensions of solar energy today and makes recommendations to policymakers regarding more effective federal and state support for research and development, technology demonstration, and solar deployment.

Among its major themes is the need to prepare our electricity systems, both technically and from a regulatory standpoint, for very large-scale deployment of solar generation – which tends to vary unpredictably throughout the day. To this end, the study emphasizes the need for federal research and development support to advance low-cost, large-scale electricity storage technologies.

The analysis finds that today’s federal and state subsidy programs designed to encourage investment in solar systems should be reconsidered, to increase their cost-effectiveness, with greater emphasis on rewarding production of solar energy.

The group also recommends that state renewable portfolio standards, which are designed to increase generation of electricity from renewable resources, be brought under a unified national program that would reduce the cost of meeting set mandates by allowing unrestricted interstate trading of credits.

The study concludes by pointing to the urgent need for an ambitious and innovative approach to technology development, with federal research and development investment focused on new technologies and systems with the potential to deliver transformative system cost reductions.

The MIT “Future of…” studies are a series of multidisciplinary reports that examine the role various energy sources could play in meeting future energy demand under carbon dioxide emissions constraints. These comprehensive reports are written by multidisciplinary teams of MIT researchers. The research is informed by a distinguished external advisory committee.

For more information or a downloadable copy of The Future of Solar Energy study, visit http://mitei.mit.edu/futureofsolar.