53. 'Shining a Light on the Solar Grid Of Tomorrow' with Garrett Nilsen, U.S. Department of Energy

Episode #53: 'Shining a Light on the Solar Grid of Tomorrow' with Garrett Nilsen, Acting Director of U.S. DOE Solar Energy Technologies Office [an Energy Central Power Perspectives™ Podcast] Under the Biden Administration, the U.S. Department of Energy has seen a revitalized focus towards solar energy as a means to transform the U.S. power grid. Recently, the Department put out the Solar Futures Study which outlined what was needed to get solar generation to 45% of the nation's power mix by mid-century, highlighting that doing so was not a pipe dream but was actually technologically and economically feasible with the right set of incentives and policies. These goals won't be accomplished in a vacuum, however, and the leaders of utilities in the Energy Central Community must take an active role towards this solar future, and our guest in this episode joined to deliver exactly what those actions could look like from utilities in the coming years. Garrett Nilsen is the Acting Director of DOE's Solar Energy Technologies Office, and in this role he's leading a dedicated team to optimize what the future of solar energy in the United States looks like. From motivating entrepreneurs to enter this clean energy space to encouraging U.S. solar manufacturing to enacting the right types of public policies, Garrett is approaching this challenge with the type of full court press it deserves, and he highlights the challenges and opportunities in doing so with podcast host Jason Price and producer Matt Chester. Key Links Energy Central Post with Full Episode Transcript: https://energycentral.com/o/energy-central/episode-43-shining-light-solar-grid-tomorrow-garrett-nilsen-acting-director-us Solar Futures Study: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-futures-study SHINES funding program: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/sustainable-and-holistic-integration-energy-storage-and-solar-pv-shines Webinar with presentations from SHINES awardees, with slides: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/right-combination-solar-storage-and-demand-response-webinar-series Solar Prize Round 5, which is taking submissions till Oct. 5: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/american-made-solar-prize-round-5 ALL the American-Made Challenges: https://americanmadechallenges.org/ Incubator funding program, which awarded $25M for the grid-forming technologies consortium led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-energy-technologies-office-fiscal-year-2021-systems-integration-and-hardware SETO Systems Integration: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/systems-integration SETO Manufacturing and Competitiveness: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/manufacturing-and-competitiveness SETO’s newsletter to get the latest on funding opportunities, prize competitions, webinars, and more: https://www.energy.gov/eere/solar/solar-newsletter