Solar Industry Projections

Solar Industry Projections

What are the solar industry projections for the great solar boom in the climate-energy era? As the country begins climbing out of recession, it is going to require increasing public acceptance of solar energy to get the economic engine fired up.

Solar industry projections provide that the uneven supply and demand ratio characteristic of 2009 will be balanced out this year due to strong demand in the Asian and U.S. markets.  These markets will help increase the global solar usage to 9.3 GW in 2010.  This would translate into a market value of U.S. $39 billion.

Decreasing prices in solar equipment and materials should open up new markets allowing for the industry to reach a United States $77 billion value with 26.4 GW of capacity in 2015.

A huge role in the growth of the solar market will be the demand for solar technology in China.  Currently, China is the largest single manufacturer of solar products in the world but not a huge buyer of them.  China will have to deploy solar technology as they have a significant impact on global warming and the energy crisis.  According to most solar industry projections, China will be the largest solar market in the world in 2015.

Supply and demand will only be restored to its equilibrium once the market experiences some company failures and lowered utility rates.

Ted Sullivan, senior analyst at Lux Research and author of the new report "Solar's Shakeout: Europe Loses Leadership as China Rises", cites that solar installations will rise at an annual rate of 23% between 2010 and 2015.  Yet, revenue will only grow annually by 14% due to falling solar equipment prices.

With the projection of 26.5 GW of solar deployed in the United States in 5 years (currently just over 1 GW), there is plenty of room for expansion in the solar industry. As energy prices rise in the future, demand for solar will increase dramatically, creating jobs increasing revenue of strong solar companies.

Searching for an way into the solar industry? We can help!

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Rich Hessler Solar

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10 Million Solar Roofs & 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot Water Act

10 Million Solar Roofs & 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot Water Act

Though 90% of Americans agree that we should be employing solar energy to combat our climate and energy crises, the U.S. government has been slow to embrace and develop legislation that addresses those concerns.  In a bill titled "10 Million Solar Roofs & 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot Water Act" and introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Feb. 4, 2010, Americans in all 50 states would be eligible for rebates for the installation of solar electric and solar thermal systems.  

The bill known as the 10 Million Solar Roofs & 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot Water Act adopted its name from California Solar Initiative's "Million Solar Roofs" program and is modeled after the incentive programs in California and New Jersey- number 1 and 2 in solar energy, respectively.  It would provide for up to half the cost of any new photovoltaic or solar thermal system.

The 10 Million Solar Roofs & 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot W ater Act will produce 30,000 new megawatts of electricity in the next 10 years.  This amount of energy is equivalent to the output of 30 nuclear power plants.  However, it is extremely more cost-effective.  The program is estimated to cost anywhere between $2-3 billion per year.

The average power plant produces about 1,000 megawatts for the $10 billion spent to build it.  Sanders' 10 Million Solar Roofs & 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot Water Act aims to produce 30x the energy of a nuclear power plant for only $30 billion.  It would take $300 billion to produce that much energy from nuclear sources.

Distributed energy is much more efficient than energy produced from coal, oil, and nuclear.  Yet, it hasn't benefited from the same amount of funding as the other more traditional methods.

Proponents of the 10 Mil lion Solar Roofs & 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot Water Act include Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ),  Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Arlen Specter (D-PA).

by Rich Hessler
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The Benefits of Distributed Energy

The Benefits of Distributed Energy

Distributed energy.  Sounds good.  It is.  It's actually the ultimate goal when it comes to dealing with our energy crisis.  In the back of our minds, we want to minimize our impact on the environment.  But when it comes down to discussing energy, we simply want to make it affordable, improve the quality and the reliability of the supply.  Distributed energy does just that.  It refers to the many new technologies that have small, modular, power-generating capacity and are combined with load management and energy storage systems to provide energy at or near the point of consumption.

Traditional methods of producing energy used more centralized operations that generate power onsite and deliver it to consumers through high-voltage power lines.  Examples of these more centralized operations are nuclear power plants, coal burning plants, and hydroelectric damns.  It goes without saying that these particular methods are have significant impacts on the environment.

Distributed energy requires consumers to produce their own energy onsite to feed into their utility's electrical grid.  Distributed energy involves a wide range of technologies including wind turbines, solar power, fuel cells, microturbines, reciprocating engines, load reduction technologies, and battery storage systems.  These distributed energy technologies are used to produce baseload power, peak power, backup power, remote power, power quality, as well as cooling and heating.

The effective employment of distributed energy also relieves congestion in transmission lines, prevents energy rate fluctuations, stabilizes the electricity grid, and re-establishes energy security.  Because distributed energy sources need to be connected to the grid, they also support and strengthen the central-station model of electricity generation, transmission, and distribution.  

 The Department of Energy is currently developing technologies to integrate renewable and distributed energy systems into the electricity grid at the distribution level.  Americans must make efforts to retrofitting their properties with renewable and distributed energy systems that improve the overall effectiveness of our energy infrastructure.

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