The Case Study for Evaluation on the Solar America Initiative Program Using General Evaluation program

General program evaluation을 이용한 미국 태양광 보급정책 평가사례연구

The General program evaluation guide is intended for use by managers of both deployment and R&D programs within the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), although most of the examples of evaluations pertain to deployment programs(EERE,2006). It could help managers determine what kinds of timely adjustments may be needed in program design or implementation to improve the rate or quality of achievement relative to the committed resources. To consider the adaptation of the method in Korea, we have studied the evaluation case for solar america initiative using cost-benefit evaluation. The President's Solar America Initiative (SAI) was launched in January 2006 as part of the administration's Advanced Energy Initiative. The SAI has a goal of installing 5-10 GW of photovoltaic (PV) systems in the U.S. by 2015 and 70-100 GW of PV systems in the U.S. by 2030. The evaluation report presents estimates of the potential benefits should the SAI PV installation goals be achieved. For this analysis, the areas researched include energy, economic, and environmental benefits. As a result, research suggests that 500 MW of PV may have been enough to avoid lackout. The ability of PV to prevent specific blackouts will depend on very specific information on where the PV installations are installed and their ability to relieve pressure on the high stress points on the grid. While this level of detail is outside the scope of this study, it appears that there will be some potential benefit for blackout prevention should the SAI PV goals be achieved.