The Arizona Republic, Oct. 29, 2009

If you want to be sure of reaching a destination, you need a map. It’s the same with an ambitious goal like ramping up solar energy in America.

Last Thursday, the U.S. House approved a bill to create a “Solar Technology Roadmap” that would provide much-needed focus and resources.

A committee, including representatives of the solar-power industry, would lay out the research-and-development needs for the next 15 years. The roadmap would be updated and revised regularly. The bill would authorize funding for R&D and demonstration projects, ramping up from $350 million in fiscal 2011 to $550 million in 2015.

For Arizona, solar power is a double economic opportunity: developing a solar industry and diversifying our power sources with a clean source of electricity. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a second-term Democrat who is a champion of solar power in southern Arizona, sponsored the bill, HR 3585.

Other countries have sped ahead of the United States in developing solar power, and China is making a major push. If we don’t adopt better policies and support innovation, Giffords warns, America will go from importing foreign oil to importing solar panels.

This isn’t an easy time to argue for spending more money. But the bill picked up bipartisan support for a reason.

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, a Maryland Republican who describes himself as a fiscal conservative, a scientist and an engineer, argues that the bill would not use too much money. The funding level, he explains, “only begins to reverse 20 years of underinvestment in solar power.”

The solar roadmap is modeled on a previous effort to develop semiconductors, which spurred two decades of technological advances. The bill still needs a sponsor in the Senate. It would be a real stretch for Sen. Jon Kyl or John McCain to back a bill that was opposed by Arizona’s three Republicans in the House. But they should take a look.