Climate Change: Article on Increase in Solar Power

I bought the Fall 2007 issue of Yes! magazine recently. It is subtitled, Building a Just and Sustainable World. From the "Signs of Life: Small Stories About Big Change" section of the magazine, here is an article on solar power:

CLIMATE CHANGE
Solar Power Surge

The solar industry is poised for rapid growth and cost reductions that will make it a mainstream power option in the next few years, according to a new assessment by the WorldWatch Institute in Washington, DC, and the Prometheus Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

People around the world are installing solar cells on the roofs of their homes and businesses. Communities and companies are creating solar parks -- connected arrays of solar panels, sometimes installed along parking lots or in polluted "brown fields" that cannot otherwise be used.

Solar cell manufacturers are now able to produce enough photovoltaic (PV) cells each year to generate 5,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity. That's 10 times the manufacturing capacity of 2002. Some analysts say this number will triple by 2010. A typical coal or nuclear power plant has a capacity of about 1,000-2,000 MW.

After growing at 20-25% per year in the 1980s and '90s the solar PV industry has grown 40-45% per year over the last six years, says Mark Farber, founder of Evergreen Solar, a Marlboro, Massachusetts, company.

With the new generation of plug-in hybrid vehicles, this new abundance could mean solar will spread its reach to include the transportation as well as the electricity sector.

"At these growth rates, solar will hit a home run for addressing the climate crisis," said Todd Larsen, Co-op America's climate action director in Washington, DC.

Climate scientists estimate that we need to reduce carbon emissions globally by at least 80% by 2050 to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.

"If we want to do this without coal or nuclear power," Larsen says,"this means that after implementing all available energy efficiency measures, and installing win and geothermal generation, the world will still need an additional 17 terawatts of low-carbon energy by 2050." A terawatt is 1 million megawatts. "Growing at just 25% per year, solar can do this by 2042."

In addition to solar PV, other types of solar power are also growing rapidly. These include solar power are also growing rapidly. These include solar thermal for hot water and industrial applications, and concentrating solar power (CSP), for utility scale applications. In China, an estimated 30 million households now use solar power to heat their water. And California alone may have more than 8,000 MW of CSP by 2020.

Small and large companies alike are getting into the business. First Solar of Phoenix, Arizona, plans to provide 685 MW of solar power to five big projects over the next few years. PPM Energy, a Portland, Oregon, company specializing in win power, announced plans to invest over $1 billion in solar in coming years.

"The conventional energy industry will be surprised by how quickly solar becomes mainstream -- cheap enough to provide carbon-free electricity on rooftops while also meeting the energy needs of hundreds of millions of people in poverty who currently lack electricity," said Janet Sawin, senior researcher at Worldwide Institute.

Alisa Gravitz is executive director of Co-op America, www.coopamerica.org