John Lushetsky
U.S. Department of Energy
Mr. Lushetsky began by referring to discussions about renewable energy at DoE over the past six to nine months—topics that at first seemed somewhat unfocused: How to reduce costs, industry standards, workforce needs, corporate partners, finance models. “At a certain point, he said, “we realized that we were really trying to look at the future of photovoltaic manufacturing in the United States. How do you bring together all these issues to provide some comprehensive response that is helpful to this industry?â€
He said that the strategy for solar programs at DoE is not to replace anything the private sector would do, but to find a role for government that helps to accelerate what industry can do on its own. Mr. Lushetsky said that the purpose of the symposium was to understand in finer detail what industry needs, and to help guide a government response that is sufficiently “prompt, effective, and strategic.†He noted that some of the models that might be helpful in this effort, such as SEMATECH, had already been studied extensively by the National Academies. This is one factor that had convinced him that much could be gained by collaborating with the Academies on the design and execution of this symposium.
