The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) last week announced it would invest $62 million in concentrating solar power (CSP) technology.

The outlay is an effort by the DOE to generate more clean energy. Roughly half of the nation’s grid energy is generated using coal, the most carbon-intensive of conventional fuels. Without changes to America’s power mix, electric vehicles would still, in practice, be heavy polluters, with half the power needed to charge their batteries coming from coal-fired electric plants.

By boosting the amount of renewable, domestic energy sources used to generate the country’s electricity, the DOE may be aiming to accomplish two goals: (1) ensure that electric vehicles live up to their full, low-carbon potential, and (2) reduce net oil imports, which are significant.

Unlike photovoltaic (PV) panels, which use the sun’s rays to generate electricity in a non-mechanical way, CSP technologies use the sun to generate heat. This heat energy, in turn, mechanically drives a turbine, which outputs electricity.