The U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot Initiative is a good example of how this can work. In 2011, the program’s leaders set a goal of driving down the cost of solar energy to $0.06 per kilowatt-hour within the decade. They focused on early-stage R&D, but they also encouraged private companies, universities, and national laboratories to concentrate on efforts like lowering the cost of solar-power systems, removing bureaucratic barriers, and making it cheaper to finance a solar-power system. Thanks to this integrated approach, SunShot met its goal in 2017, three years ahead of schedule.
