MoU to accelerate solar energy research

As part of the opening session of Intersolar North America in San Francisco on July 10, 2012, U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE)’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Director Dan Arvizu signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems; and Japan’s Research Center for Photovoltaic Technologies, a research unit of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.

The goal of the Global Alliance of Solar Energy Research Institutes is to accelerate progress toward shared solar research and development goals as well as to ensure sustainable long-term use of solar energy. The main focus of the Global Alliance of Solar Energy Research Institutes will be a researcher exchange program where each organization will send researchers to the other participant’s labs for collaborative research lasting anywhere from six months to two years.