Dept. of Energy throws millions at a startup trying to make solar energy mainstream

The U.S. Department of Energy wants normal Americans to start using solar energy in their everyday lives. To that end, it’s just granted $2 million to Solar Mosaic, a sort of Kickstarter for solar projects.

Solar Mosaic is still in a quiet pre-launch period, but its projects have so far collected more than $350,000 in interest-free investments from 400 individuals, and the first five projects have together generated 73kW of clean solar energy (that’s more than half a million dollars’ worth of energy) and added more than 2,700 job hours for workers in areas such as Oakland, Calif., and the Navajo Nation in Arizona.