SolarBridge Hosts Department of Energy Visitors

Dr. Henry Kelly (right) tours the SolarBridge labs with (from left) Peter Gage, Senior Advisor to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy; Patrick Chapman, CTO/Co-Founder, SolarBridge Technologies; Ron Van Dell, president/CEO, SolarBridge Technologies.

SolarBridge Technologies was pleased to welcome Dr. Henry Kelly, Acting Assistant Secretary and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), to SolarBridge during his recent visit to Austin. Dr. Kelly was in town as the keynote speaker at Opal Financial Group’s Energy Investment Forum, and to learn more about the growing cleantech ecosystem in Austin.

The EERE oversees a number of renewable energy efforts including the SunShot Initiative, which aims to reduce the installed cost of utility-scale solar systems to a dollar-a-watt. At a dollar-a-watt, solar energy is cost competitive—without subsidy—with other energy sources. Dr. Kelly also manages programs that will help put one million electric vehicles on the road by 2015, make the nation’s buildings 20% more efficient, and help the United States obtain 80% of its electricity from clean energy sources by 2035.

SolarBridge recent received two DOE grants through the SunShot initiative and the ARPA-E program.