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May 25, 2007
Solar Energy Poised to Go Mainstream, Say Researchers
Solar Energy Poised to Go Mainstream, Say Researchers - Yahoo! News
Solar power is the fastest growing source of energy in the world and likely will become much more affordable in the next few years, according to a new report out this week.
"As production costs fall, technologies continue to advance, and supply and demand come into balance," the report reads, "[solar power] prices will fall more than 40 percent in the next three years relative to prices in late 2006. Such a decline would make solar electricity far more affordable in markets across the globe."
Additionally, China's strong entry in the field could drive prices down even further, the report's authors predict.
Already, global production of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells, which turn sunlight directly into electricity, has risen six-fold since 2000 and grew 41 percent in 2006 alone, says the report from the Washington, DC-based Worldwatch Institute and the Prometheus Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. That makes solar power the world's fastest growing energy source, though grid-connected solar capacity still makes up less than 1 percent of the world market.
"Today, high cost is the largest barrier, but this is a temporary challenge," said Worldwatch's Janet Sawin, who authored the report.
The growth of solar power has been fastest in Japan and Germany, the report notes. Sawin said that's no accident. Those countries, she told OneWorld, have enacted laws friendly to solar power, which is generated without emitting carbon dioxide or other significant pollutants.
In Germany a law guarantees that owners of solar panels get a fixed price when they produce more solar energy than they consume and sell the excess back to the national electricity grid. In Spain, ordinances require "that new and renovated buildings include solar [power]."
Posted by Sun at May 25, 2007 03:54 AM