SOPS FOR SOLAR

New Energy isn't asking for the enormous subsidies fossil fuels have always benefitted from in the form of deferred true costs to the undefended public. All it asks is the assurance of a fair share of the common revenues raised to promote the general welfare.

SOPS Key To Solar Growth In U.S.
Megan Harris, June 8, 2007 (UPI)

WHO
Michael Splinter, CEO, Applied Materials; Rhone Resch, president, Solar Energy Industries Association
rising demand, falling traditional supply. solution: New Energy (click to enlarge)
WHAT
Long-term incentives are necessary to drive the growth of solar energy production by establishing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for the industry.

WHEN
- Solar: A $15 billion market expected to be $50 billion by 2010.
- Applied Materials got into semiconductors several years ago, photo-voltaics last year and is presently moving toward thin-film solar technology.

WHERE
- Applied Materials is based in Silicon Valley
- Splinter and Resch spoke at a New America Foundation briefing in Washington, D.C.

WHY
- Solar is essentially greenhouse gas (GHG)-emission free.
- Solar is presently 0.1% of global (5000 gigawatts) electricity production.
- The solar energy business is bigger in Germany, Spain, China and India because there are incentives for consumers and business.
- Splinter advocated an eight-year tax incentives extension instead of the current two-year extension in the 2005 energy bill. A new energy bill is being developed in Washington.
- A silicon shortage which has held growth back is slowly resolving and economies of scale are making solar electricity more competitive.
- Current growth is unlike that of the 1970s because rising fossil fuel costs driving the market are unlikely to reverse.
add economies of scale developed in a predictable business environment and you've got competitive New Energy (click to enlarge)
QUOTES
- Splinter: "The only risk posed by solar is not going forward rapidly…We've exceeded our first year forecast by 50 percent and are raising our projection to $400 million this year ... we're adding jobs ... and racing to meet demand…"
- Splinter: "Every large rooftop in the U.S. should be a candidate for solar…as taxpayers we own a lot of government rooftops ... certainly there are plenty here in Washington."
- Resch: "Congress has historically jump-started emerging industries…a cap-and-trade system is going to take a long time to develop, but at the end of the eight years, we'll have a mature cap-and-trade system and markets will do the work…Solar is an asset to the grid…It provides energy at the time of use and at peak use times. It shaves off peak demand and that helps stabilize the grid."