PHOTON International The Photovoltaic Magazine

Solar »pork« could drop US PV R&D budget for FY 2006 below last year's level

A US Senate committee has approved a 2006 budget for solar R&D of $83.953 million. But unlike its House counterpart, which authorized the same level in May, the upper chamber has kept its earmarks separate. Still, other »pork« abounds. And if added to the House bacon during July negotiations, PV could be left looking at leaner pickings than last year – and possibly its smallest budget since 1997.

	© data: DOE; graphic: PHOTON International
Butcher's choice: If all the pork were cut from the FY 2006 budget for PV R&D, the US industry could be looking at a budget of about $75 million. Otherwise, the amount could drop to $62.3 million, the lowest level seen in nine years – and a shadow of the money available back in 1980.

On June 16, the US Senate Energy and Water Committee came out with a solar program R&D budget proposal of $83.953 million, the same amount approved by the corresponding committee in the House a month earlier. It was even equal to what President George W. Bush requested in February when proposing his budget for FY 2006. Surprisingly, unlike in past rounds, the Senate decided to keep its $4.3 million in earmarks – commonly known as »pork« since it is used to feed a politician's favored constituents (and possible campaign funding contributors) – separate from the solar pot. The House, on the contrary, had already included $6.5 million of pork in its proposal. How much of this House bacon will end up being deducted from the PV R&D budget after the two bodies wheel and deal in a late-July conference is anybody's guess.

But before you start thinking that the Senate has gone vegetarian in its budgeting process, consider this: it has still found a way to include $6.2 million of pork in special recommendations for government-related projects. If on top of this all the House earmarks remained, when combined with the $3 million in funding already factored out for solar heating and lighting, as well as a $6 million set-aside for concentrating solar power (CSP) contained in both House and Senate versions, in a worst-case scenario PV could be looking at an effective research budget of just under $62.3 million. Not only would this be less than last year's amount of $66.5 million, it would be the lowest level of funding made available since 1997, when Congress appropriated a mere $59.2 million.

The New Mexican Connection

Interestingly, much of the handouts on the Senate side would go to New Mexico-related concerns. Why? Most likely because the committee is chaired by the state's powerful Sen. Pete Domenici. In addition to the carve-out for CSP pledged by both chambers, the Senate has upped that amount by $5 million »to validate the commercial viability« of a 1 MW demonstration for dish concentrating solar power at Sandia National Laboratory – which just happens to be located in New Mexico. According to sources, the money would go to Phoenix, Arizona-based Stirling Energy Systems. One rumor has it that the US Department of Energy (DOE) is furious about this and will try to get it to come out of Sandia's budget.

The Senate additions also include $2 million for the New Mexico-based Southeast and Southwest photovoltaic experiment stations – but while pork-flavored, this money has historically been considered part of the PV budget. The same goes for the estimated $1 million in funding for either the Million Solar Roofs Initiative (an inflated name if ever there was one) or – as the committee writes – »another effective solar deployment program.«

But another $1.2 million noted in the Senate numbers squeals of oink. Again, the money is slated to go to Sandia – this time, »for the development of advanced cells and modules using ultra-thin back-contact multicrystalline silicon solar cells.« Or in other words, straight to Advent Solar Inc., an Albuquerque, New Mexico-based PV start up which is developing this exact technology. The company, which celebrated a pilot-line ribbon-cutting ceremony in May with Sen. Domenici in attendance (see PI 6/2005, p. 63), is partly owned by former Sandia senior scientist James Gee (see PI 9/2003, p. 16). As was the case with the funding for the CSP dish project, the DOE is understood to be livid and wants to make Sandia use money from its own budgetary pocket.

No doubt the US PV industry is praying that some of these carve-outs will not get through. Indeed, all hope may not be lost. If the DOE is successful in nixing the hidden money for Advent and Stirling, the FY 2006 PV R&D budget could be raised to a respectable $68.2 million. And according to Noah Kaye, policy analyst at the Washington, DC-based Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the House could still be convinced to separate out all of its »directed funding« to come from other budgets, as the Senate did. »If you are going to do earmarks, which is an ugly way to govern,« he says, »then that's the way to most closely approximate fairness.« In that case, when the US budget goes for a vote – probably sometime in the fall – the US PV industry could conceivably find itself with about $75 million in the next fiscal year, a level not seen since 2001 (although such comparisons don't take inflation into account).

But don't hold your breath. It is more likely that companies will find themselves having to seek funding from other government programs, such as the Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA) run by the US Department of Defense (see PI 9/2004, p. 34) or private companies like Hewlett Packard to satisfy their R&D needs. Who knows? Given all the pork running around, they might even want to try a few meatpacking plants.