Flat-plate solar array project: Government and industry responding to national needs

Abstract

This document recounts the accomplishments of the 11-year Flat-Plate Solar Array Project, which is recognized as one of the most successful and comprehensive technology-transfer efforts ever achieved through government-sponsored research and development. Few Federal research projects can claim the degree of industry involvement that was a fundamental aspect of the FSA Project. This philosophy in turn led to an extraordinary transfer of technology to the private sector, and assured that a maximum amount of the taxpayers' dollars were devoted to research of primary importance to the technology's commercialization.