• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Departments
    • Aerospace Engineering
    • Bioengineering
    • Civil and Environmental Engineering
    • Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences
    • Engineering Science
    • Industrial Engineering and Operations Research
    • Materials Science and Engineering
    • Mechanical Engineering
    • Nuclear Engineering
  • News
    • Berkeley Engineer magazine
    • Social media
    • News videos
    • News digest (email)
    • Press kit
  • Events
    • Events calendar
    • Homecoming
    • Cal Day
    • Commencement
    • View from the Top
    • Kuh Lecture Series
    • Minner Lecture
  • College directory
  • For staff & faculty
Berkeley Engineering

Educating leaders. Creating knowledge. Serving society.

  • About
    • Facts & figures
    • Rankings
    • Mission & values
    • Equity & inclusion
    • Voices of Berkeley Engineering
    • Leadership team
    • Milestones
    • Facilities
    • Maps
  • Admissions
    • Undergraduate admissions
    • Graduate admissions
    • Visit
    • Maps
    • Admissions events
    • K-12 outreach
  • Academics
    • Undergraduate programs
    • Majors & minors
    • Undergraduate Guide
    • Graduate programs
    • Graduate Guide
    • Innovation & entrepreneurship
    • Kresge Engineering Library
    • International programs
    • Executive education
  • Students
    • Advising & counseling
    • Programs
    • Academic support
    • Student life
    • Wellness & inclusion
    • Undergraduate Guide
    • Degree requirements
    • Forms & petitions
    • Resources
  • Research & faculty
    • Centers & institutes
    • Undergrad research
    • Faculty
  • Connect
    • Alumni
    • Industry
    • Give
    • Stay in touch
Home > News > Envisioning low-cost solar
Chart of potential power sources for the western United States

Envisioning low-cost solar

Berkeley Engineer Fall 2013
November 1, 2013
This article appeared in Berkeley Engineer magazine, Fall 2013

UC Berkeley scientists led by Dan Kammen, a nuclear engineering professor and director of the Energy and Resources Group, developed a model of the West’s electric power grid. The model helps predict what will happen if the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) SunShot Initiative succeeds.

SunShot is an effort to make solar power more affordable and accessible to Americans by bringing the price of solar power down to that of conventional power by 2020. The DOE currently invests about $300 million per year in solar energy technologies.

What they found is that low-cost solar power could supply more than a third of all energy needs in the western U.S. by 2050, displacing natural gas, nuclear and carbon capture and sequestration technologies.

“Given strategic long-term planning and research and policy support, the increase in electricity costs can be contained as we reduce emissions,” says Kammen. “Saving the planet may be possible at only a modest cost.”

Topics: , EnergyFaculty
  • Contact
  • Give
  • Privacy
  • UC Berkeley
  • Accessibility
  • Nondiscrimination
  • instagram
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • facebook
  • youtube
© 2023 UC Regents