Energy Innovation

Tom Friedman: "A breakthrough innovation is always hard to predict and the case of energy will be no different. 'you are not going to see it coming,' Bill Gates said to me in an interview. 'the breakthrough will probably come out of somewhere you least expect, and we'll only know how it happened looking backward.'"

A Brief Analysis of Photovoltaic Solar Power Industry

We rcently published a research report on the solar power industry with a focus on photovoltaic technologies. The report provides an overview of the photovoltaic (PV) market, covering major PV technologies, recent developments of some of the major players in the industry, and a summary of various government initiatives aimed at helping to accelerate the growth of the sector.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, the resource potential for PV is effectively unlimited relative to electricity demand. Furthermore, PV can be sited anywhere at any scale, which makes the long term growth potential of PV as a major energy supplier very promising.

With technological breakthroughs constantly on the horizon within the PV industry , the cost gap between generating electricity from burning fossil fuels and generating electricity from PV systems is getting smaller and smaller. We believe that a large portion of tomorrow's clean energy will be provided by these increasingly efficient, high yield solar cells.

"Developing low-cost, renewable energy generation is crucial to meeting our nation's increasing demand for electricity," said U.S. Secretary of Energy, Steven Chu. "By investing in the development of low-cost solar technologies we can create new jobs and pave the way towards a clean-energy future."

SOLAR ENERGY IS THE BIG WINNER

The rescue package approved in late October by the Congress included various incentives for energy projects including solar energy. A 30% tax credit for solar projects was extended for another 8 years until 2016. This investment tax credit means that companies that purchase solar energy equipment for commercial use can claim 30% of the cost in the year the equipment is put to use. Initially the deadline for putting the equipment to use was 2008 but it was extended until 2016. Originally, companies were able to use the investment tax credits to reduce the tax payments by up to 75% but not less than the minimum taxes calculated using the broader definition of taxable income. The new bill made this provision more favorable by simply allowing a reduction of taxes using such credits by up to 75%.

These, along with other provisions of the bill, are indicative of the Congress’s commitment to development and implementation of renewable energy technologies. Solar technologies have experienced very rapid growth in the recent years and concentrated solar power projects have enabled power production at costs that are economical even without subsidies.

The next few years shall bring about development of vast solar power fields around the world and as such, over time global dependence on coal and other forms of energy produced from fossil fuels will decrease and will be replaced with renewable sources. With the sun being such a vast resource and with recent leap in solar power technologies solar will be the big winner.