Many of the most significant industrial and technological innovations in the U.S. were discovered, commercialized and expanded with government support. Turn the clock a century or two and you can see how the government was behind oil drilling and refining, transcontinental railroads and our electric grid. More recently the government's been successful with the space program, the internet and the biotech revolution. And these government efforts continue with solar. To quote the DOE: "In 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) was tasked with achieving the goals of the SunShot Initiative: to drive down the cost of solar electricity to be fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources by the end of the decade." [no one else uses verbs like "tasked']

Suffice it to say that over the past few years SunShot has already been the motivating factor behind dozens of solar innovations, including new financing concepts (Connecticut Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority's "Green Bank,"), new flat roof and sloped roof PV mounting systems, clever CSP technologies, SolarTech's work to reduce permitting costs, and the Rooftop Solar Challenge. There is considerable momentum behind the dozens of projects that are in the midst of their funding stages, may of which are focused on making solar more affordable by reducing soft costs.

SunShot staffers get into the field to understand real world problems and potential solutions. Sometimes that "field" is a steeply sloped roof -- which is where I started this week's interview with Minh Le, the Director of SunShot. After we moved to a more stable platform on the ground we had a good opportunity to talk about the overall SunShot program and how they reach out to solar industry participants. Please join me on this week's Energy Show on Renewable Energy World as Minh Le talks about SunShot's progress in reducing solar hard costs (equipment) and soft costs, as well as their efforts to help new companies and technologies get into the hands of customers where they can do the most good.