ECONOMICS |
EDUCATION |
ENVIRONMENT |
FOREIGN POLICY |
POLITICS |
OPINION |
TRADE
U.S. CITIES:
Solar Power Source of Optimism for Clean Energy Advocates
Alex Kingsbury
Even Obama has touted the potential of solar energy
Solar power has long been the holy grail of energy production.
It is clean, and sunshine is free and in inexhaustible supply. But it remains a tiny part of worldwide energy production, about 0.02 percent. Of course, solar power has made some gains from the days of powering just calculators. Solar cells now top streetlights and stoplights, roadside emergency phones, small homes off the power grid, and oil rigs offshore. The conversion of solar energy into electric power on an industrial level, on the other hand, has remained a distant and elusive goal.
There are several serious technological hurdles that prevent solar power from cracking into the power-generation market in a major way. Moreover, private investors and public-policy makers are leery of investing heavily in technologies that may be leapfrogged by a far more efficient technology in the coming months or years. Large-scale production will continue only in fits and starts, experts say, until solar power has a solid track record of generating with equal consistency both power and revenue.
A chief inhibitor of solar power's growth has been the country's antiquated power grid, which generally can't incorporate solar power generated in homes into the grid. But the federal government has committed more than
High maintenance. Another speed bump on the road to sustainable solar power is the cost of the raw materials. One explanation for the high cost is that solar cell producers have to compete with computer-chip makers for the same raw materials. And, like microprocessors in a PC, solar cells are surprisingly fragile. Keeping an entire field of them in service can be prohibitively expensive because they require nearly constant maintenance.
The solar array in
Available at Amazon.com:
Willful Neglect: The Dangerous Illusion of Homeland Security
The Reluctant Spy: My Secret Life in the CIA's War on Terror
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
Read the latest political news.
- Census Reports Less Backlash Than Expected
- Solar Power Source of Optimism for Clean Energy Advocates
- Energy - Climate Bill Stalled in the Senate
- BP Oil Spill Calamity: Having to Play Defense
- Jeb Bush Leads Fight for Immigration Reform
- Shame on Arizona
- The Ideal Supreme Court Candidate
- White House Expects Battle Over Supreme Court Nominee
- Why Don't They Come Legally? They Can't
- School Competition Restores Hope
- Three Steps to Survive a Disaster
- Most Americans Getting Whacked by High Energy Costs
- Energy Race: United States Needs Coherent Clean Energy Strategy
- Reality Check: Energy Powers That Be
- Jolt for Energy Innovation: Government Investing
- Source of Sunny Optimism: Obama Touting Solar Power Potential
- Side by Side in Need for Green Growth: China and America try cooperation
- National Power Grid That Thinks
- Companies Learning How to Capture Power of the Oceans and Seas
- Consumers who go green may qualify for federal credits and deductions
- Many clean energy stimulus projects have yet to get off ground
- Mass Transit: Move America to Work
United States - Solar Power Source of Optimism for Clean Energy Advocates
(c) 2010 U.S. News & World Report