Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER
1
Sunny Side Up
Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same
place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as
that!
—
LEWIS CARROLL, FROM
THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
S
OLAR IS DEAD—AT LEAST THAT'S WHAT ITS DETRACTORS
want you to believe. Dead in
the water, they say, dead as disco and dinosaurs, a hippie-dippy pipe dream gone up in
smoke.Butthesesolar-energyopponents,manyofwhomhailfromthecoal,oil,nuke,and
gas lobbies (ol' King CONG), have recently been pointing to just one example in their
efforts to prove their point: Solyndra, the erstwhile solar-industry poster child, which, in
2011,madeheadlinesanddrewnationwidederisionwhenitwentbankruptafterreceiving
a $500 million loan from the US government.
But here's the truth King CONG doesn't want you to know: The downfall of Solyndra
actually proved that solar power is fast becoming the most cost-effective and efficient
form of electricity on Earth. The company's failure was largely due to competition in a
market that's been growing at an amazing rate, and Solyndra's idea for a lower-cost sol-
ar module (which had a daft cylindrical design that was too fragile and too expensive to
make) simply couldn't compete with less-expensive, mass-produced silicon-based solar
panels, the cheapest of which largely come from China—not an uncommon practice as
new products become more common and affordable.
Solar-panel manufacturing is relatively simple (it's less complex than, say, making a
car), and a lot of it can be done using automated methods or low-skilled labor, of which
China has plenty.
Let's look at Apple Inc. for a moment. Here's a company that designs its devices in
California and then sells them through clever online and physical retail stores around the
world, but it manufactures these products in Chinese factories. The world loves Apple
products, and Wall Street loves the company, which in 2012 surpassed Exxon as the most
valuableintheworld.ItcurrentlyhasmorecashthantheUSgovernment!Thereareprob-
