A FUTURE UNDER THE SUN

New Report Outlines Bold New Vision for Solar in America
March 9, 2010 (Environment America)

"Senator Bernie Sanders (VT) and three solar business executives joined Environment America to lay out a bold new vision for solar energy in the United States. From laundromats and baseball stadiums, to homes and cars, generating energy from the sun is already enhancing energy security and reducing pollution in America. A new Environment America report outlines a vision for using the sun to meet 10 percent of the United States’ energy needs by 2030…

"Building a Solar Future; Repowering America’s Homes, Businesses and Industry with Solar Energy examines a wide variety of solar technologies and tools, including photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, solar water heaters, solar space heating, and passive solar design. The report makes the case that there are many ways to take advantage of the sun’s energy. Solar energy can be converted to electricity, or used for lighting, heating and cooling. It can replace the fossil fuels we burn at electric power plants, in factories, in our homes, and even in our cars. While the report outlines this vision for the future, it also profiles various applications of solar energy currently in use…"

Historically, solar is a great business. (click to enlarge)

"…Wal-Mart’s use of skylights has cut energy costs in some stores by 15 to 20 percent by reducing the need for electric lighting…Laundry facilities, hotels, hospitals and even the Boston Red Sox have adopted solar water heating to reduce their consumption of natural gas for water heating…and…A Frito-Lay plant in California uses solar concentrators to provide heat for cooking snack foods.

"The report finds that getting 10 percent of our energy from solar energy within two decades…can play a major role in weaning the nation from dangerous, polluting, unstable and, in many cases, increasingly expensive forms of energy."

The question is whether the U.S. will act to capture a part of the booming world market. (click to enlarge)

"Environment America called on local, state and federal governments to commit to expanding solar energy…by adopting strong policies…[that advance] investing in solar technologies, research and development; requiring that utilities get more of their electricity from renewable resources like solar; requiring that buildings codes move towards all new buildings using zero net-energy; educating the public and training an effective workforce…"

[Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont):] “At a time when we spend $350 billion importing oil from Saudi Arabia and other countries every year, the United States must move away from foreign oil to energy independence…A dramatic expansion of solar power is a clean and economical way to help break our dependence on foreign oil, reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming, improve our geopolitical position, and create good-paying green jobs.”