Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
ar panels on the skins of our buildings and the surfaces of our vacant lands—and maybe
even on the surfaces of our roads.
Lest you think I and my fellow solar entrepreneurs are biased because we've helped
build businesses in this space, here are some hard numbers from the US Energy Inform-
ation Administration from around the same time some pundits were striking up the band
to play the dirge for the solar industry: US solar-generated electricity expanded in 2011
by 45 percent over the first three quarters of 2010. In comparison, natural-gas electrical
generation rose only 1.6 percent, while nuclear output declined by 2.8 percent and coal-
generated electricity dropped by 4.2 percent.
Solar is on the rise across the United States. In 2010, 16 states installed more than
enough to supply approximately 2,000 homes, compared with only four states in 2007.
Californiasawhugeincreasesinusage,crossingthehead-spinning1-gigawattmarkeron
solar rooftops—a level only five countries have achieved. (To put this number into per-
spective, 1 gigawatt is the capacity of a whole nuclear power plant, which could power
200,000 homes!) But that's just a start for this form of power generated from solar pan-
els.
Worldwide the solar industry is also taking off in a big way: China enjoyed such
a burst of solar power that it recalibrated the target in its twelfth five-year plan to 15
gigawatts installed by 2015—50 percent higher than the previous target and 50 percent
more than we expect to have in the United States.
The big surprise to me personally, as someone in the solar business, is that China
caught up to the United States in installed solar panels in 2011, which I had not expected
to happen for years. Five years earlier there were almost none in all of China—and the
United States had a 50-year head start.
On the subcontinent, Pakistan has passed the point where solar power is cheaper than
a lot of electricity that comes from diesel generators, and India is upping its target from
20 to 33 gigawatts to be installed by 2020.
Germany produced more than 18 billion kilowatt-hours of solar electricity in 2011.
That's60percentmorethanitproducedtheyearbeforeandisenoughtosupply5million
householdsforayear.InDecember2011thecountryinstalled3gigawattsofsolarpanels
in just one month—enough capacity to power 600,000 homes!
By any measure, the world is experiencing a solar boom. Momentum is building, and
wehavetokeepitgoingforthebenefitofoureconomyandourplanet'slongevity.Todo
that we have to combat Dirty Energy's efforts with our own, and the time is now.
