Regional Sustainability Symposium November 10 Pinehurst Resort 9 am - 3 pm
Morning Keynote Speaker: Mr. Henry McKoy, Assistant Secretary for Community Development for the NC Department of Commerce
Mr. McKoy will explain what it means to bring sustainability “to life” and how the economy, the community and the built/developed environment can work together to promote sustainability in the broadest sense.
Lunch Keynote Speaker: Mr. Addison (Tad) D. Davis, Command Executive Officer & Director of Services and Infrastructure Core Enterprise for US Army Reserve
Mr. Davis will discuss Army sustainability. As the Garrison Commander at Fort Bragg who founded their award-wining sustainability initiative, and through his years as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Environment, Safety and Occupational Health, Mr. Davis has a unique perspective to share about the importance of regional partnerships to advance the cause of both Army and Community sustainability.
Symposium agenda includes sessions on:
How to attract the new “green consumer” and how to incorporate sustainable practices into your business.
Why the Green Schools program, green space, and park systems are so important for children and communities.
Tax incentives, credits and rebates for the use of solar power, wind power and natural gas, and how to make a business case for installing such technologies.
Successes shared and lessons learned from a local food cooperative at the close of their first year in operation, and how citizens and farmers came together to bring fresh local food to hundreds.
How to add layers of sustainability to your home with the use of native plants, xeriscaping, shade trees and more.
An afternoon “Growth Quality” track that includes an interactive visual preference and assessment exercise that will inform Sandhills communities about the types of development and conservation their residents prefer in the future.
Learn more at www.sustainablesandhills.org
Showing posts with label solar power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label solar power. Show all posts
3/01/2010
Renewable Energies in NC
Thursday, March 11, 2010, 1:00 PM
Ball Center, Sandhills Community College
"Renewable Energy Opportunities for North Carolina". Presentation by Alex Hobbs, Ph.D. followed by a discussion on renewable energy with community members to include: Ray Ogden, Moore County Economic Development/Partners for Progress; Joey Raczkowski, Moore County
Planning and Development; Bill Smith, Southern Pines (Automotive/Alternative Fuels); Jay Snyder, First Health; Dr. Larry Upchurch, Moore County Schools.
Dr. Hobbs directs the NC Solar Center Renewable Technologies Program for research, development and deployment of bioenergy, biofuels and bioproducts as well as efforts to improve energy efficiency programs in residential, commercial, industrial and agriculture business sectors.
This programs is sponsored by the AAUW.
Ball Center, Sandhills Community College
"Renewable Energy Opportunities for North Carolina". Presentation by Alex Hobbs, Ph.D. followed by a discussion on renewable energy with community members to include: Ray Ogden, Moore County Economic Development/Partners for Progress; Joey Raczkowski, Moore County
Planning and Development; Bill Smith, Southern Pines (Automotive/Alternative Fuels); Jay Snyder, First Health; Dr. Larry Upchurch, Moore County Schools.
Dr. Hobbs directs the NC Solar Center Renewable Technologies Program for research, development and deployment of bioenergy, biofuels and bioproducts as well as efforts to improve energy efficiency programs in residential, commercial, industrial and agriculture business sectors.
This programs is sponsored by the AAUW.
2/13/2010
Energy Crisis vs US Involvement
February 13, 2010 Op-Ed Columnist
Watching China Run By BOB HERBERT
It was primarily a symbolic gesture. Way back in 1979, in the midst of an energy crisis, Jimmy Carter had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. They were used to heat water for some White House staffers.
“A generation from now,” said Mr. Carter, “this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people, harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.”
Ronald Reagan had the panels taken down.
We missed the boat then, and lord knows we’re missing it now. Two weeks ago, as I was getting ready to take off for Palo Alto, Calif., to cover a conference on the importance of energy and infrastructure for the next American economy, The Times’s Keith Bradsher was writing from Tianjin, China, about how the Chinese were sprinting past everybody else in the world, including the United States, in the race to develop clean energy.
That we are allowing this to happen is beyond stupid. China is a poor country with nothing comparable to the tremendous research, industrial and economic resources that the U.S. has been blessed with. Yet they’re blowing us away — at least for the moment — in the race to the future.
Our esteemed leaders in Washington can’t figure out how to do anything more difficult than line up for a group photo. Put Americans back to work? You must be kidding. Health care? We’ve been working on it for three-quarters of a century. Infrastructure? Don’t ask.
But, as Mr. Bradsher tells us, “China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines and is poised to expand even further this year.”
China also has become the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels and is pushing hard on other clean energy advances. As Mr. Bradsher wrote: “These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China.”
We’re in the throes of an awful and seemingly endless employment crisis, and China is the country moving full speed ahead on the development of the world’s most important new industries. I’d like one of the Washington suits to step away from the photo-op and explain the logic of that to me.
The truth, of course, is that there is no reason at all for this to be happening. The United States, in many ways, is very well prepared to move ahead on clean energy. It could and should be the world’s leader. Many, if not most, of the innovations in this area were developed right here. But much of that know-how, as we are seeing in China (and have been seeing in Germany and other places), is being implemented overseas.
The conference that I attended in Palo Alto spotlighted the need to move to a low-carbon economy in the U.S. and exemplified some of the resources available to make it happen. It was sponsored by the Brookings Institution and Lazard, the investment banking advisory firm. The participants included the leaders of — and major investors in — companies that are making great strides in the alternative energy industry. But much of their business is done overseas because right now in America’s wacky, dysfunctional public sector there is no clear vision of a viable clean-energy economy, and, thus, no clue about how to get there.
The network of world-class universities and advanced research institutions in the U.S. is by far the most impressive in the world: think Harvard and Stanford and Berkeley and M.I.T. and on and on. If you add to that the venture capital community in the U.S. with its vast experience and the willingness of investors to take risks, and the sheer entrepreneurial talent of the American business community, you end up with an array of resources fully capable of moving the U.S. into a low-carbon, high-growth and extraordinarily productive economy that would be the envy of the world.
But for that to happen — as Bruce Katz, a Brookings executive who was one of the organizers of the conference, pointed out — America’s corporate, civic and political leaders will have to “articulate what’s really at stake here.”
And what’s at stake is the future of the American economy. The low-carbon era is coming. We can be dragged into that newer, greener world by leading countries like China; or we can take up the challenge and become the world’s leader ourselves.
Watching China Run By BOB HERBERT
It was primarily a symbolic gesture. Way back in 1979, in the midst of an energy crisis, Jimmy Carter had solar panels installed on the roof of the White House. They were used to heat water for some White House staffers.
“A generation from now,” said Mr. Carter, “this solar heater can either be a curiosity, a museum piece, an example of a road not taken, or it can be a small part of one of the greatest and most exciting adventures ever undertaken by the American people, harnessing the power of the sun to enrich our lives as we move away from our crippling dependence on foreign oil.”
Ronald Reagan had the panels taken down.
We missed the boat then, and lord knows we’re missing it now. Two weeks ago, as I was getting ready to take off for Palo Alto, Calif., to cover a conference on the importance of energy and infrastructure for the next American economy, The Times’s Keith Bradsher was writing from Tianjin, China, about how the Chinese were sprinting past everybody else in the world, including the United States, in the race to develop clean energy.
That we are allowing this to happen is beyond stupid. China is a poor country with nothing comparable to the tremendous research, industrial and economic resources that the U.S. has been blessed with. Yet they’re blowing us away — at least for the moment — in the race to the future.
Our esteemed leaders in Washington can’t figure out how to do anything more difficult than line up for a group photo. Put Americans back to work? You must be kidding. Health care? We’ve been working on it for three-quarters of a century. Infrastructure? Don’t ask.
But, as Mr. Bradsher tells us, “China vaulted past competitors in Denmark, Germany, Spain and the United States last year to become the world’s largest maker of wind turbines and is poised to expand even further this year.”
China also has become the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels and is pushing hard on other clean energy advances. As Mr. Bradsher wrote: “These efforts to dominate renewable energy technologies raise the prospect that the West may someday trade its dependence on oil from the Mideast for a reliance on solar panels, wind turbines and other gear manufactured in China.”
We’re in the throes of an awful and seemingly endless employment crisis, and China is the country moving full speed ahead on the development of the world’s most important new industries. I’d like one of the Washington suits to step away from the photo-op and explain the logic of that to me.
The truth, of course, is that there is no reason at all for this to be happening. The United States, in many ways, is very well prepared to move ahead on clean energy. It could and should be the world’s leader. Many, if not most, of the innovations in this area were developed right here. But much of that know-how, as we are seeing in China (and have been seeing in Germany and other places), is being implemented overseas.
The conference that I attended in Palo Alto spotlighted the need to move to a low-carbon economy in the U.S. and exemplified some of the resources available to make it happen. It was sponsored by the Brookings Institution and Lazard, the investment banking advisory firm. The participants included the leaders of — and major investors in — companies that are making great strides in the alternative energy industry. But much of their business is done overseas because right now in America’s wacky, dysfunctional public sector there is no clear vision of a viable clean-energy economy, and, thus, no clue about how to get there.
The network of world-class universities and advanced research institutions in the U.S. is by far the most impressive in the world: think Harvard and Stanford and Berkeley and M.I.T. and on and on. If you add to that the venture capital community in the U.S. with its vast experience and the willingness of investors to take risks, and the sheer entrepreneurial talent of the American business community, you end up with an array of resources fully capable of moving the U.S. into a low-carbon, high-growth and extraordinarily productive economy that would be the envy of the world.
But for that to happen — as Bruce Katz, a Brookings executive who was one of the organizers of the conference, pointed out — America’s corporate, civic and political leaders will have to “articulate what’s really at stake here.”
And what’s at stake is the future of the American economy. The low-carbon era is coming. We can be dragged into that newer, greener world by leading countries like China; or we can take up the challenge and become the world’s leader ourselves.
1/05/2010
11/24/2009
Meet Stan, the Energy Guy
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Renewable-Energy/2006-10-01/Meet-Stan-Ovshinsky-the-Energy-Genius.aspx
9/14/2009
6/25/2009
Learn About Solar Hot Water
http://greenhomesamerica.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/solar-hot-water-video/
6/19/2009
7/29/2008
Demand This From Our Legislators
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1179/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=25264
7/01/2008
5/20/2008
NC Needs Fair Rules
NC Sustainable Energy Association Press Release
Dear Friends,
Would you like to produce clean, solar energy from your rooftop? You probably answered, "yes."
Yet even if we handed solar panels out on street corners, you might not be able to start generating clean power and saving money. Why not? Because state rules prevent you from easily connecting your solar panels to the electricity grid and receiving fair credit for the clean power they produce.
We can change this, by making fair rules. North Carolina needs good "net metering" and "interconnection" rules. This year we are working with our state legislature to get them.
Will you sign a petition asking Senator Basnight and Representative Hackney to support net metering?
Go to www.votesolar.org/nc.html
Best Regards,
Natalie Burlison
Administrative and Membership Assistant
North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association
Net Metering is the simplest, fairest way to bill customers who have their own renewable generators. Put simply, if you don't use a utility kilowatt-hour from the utility, you don't pay for it. If you create excess energy, your meter simply spins backwards, storing credit for next month - like cell-phone rollover minutes. In some form, it exists in 35 states, including all with successful renewable energy programs.
The NC Sustainable Energy Association works to ensure a sustainable future by promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency in North Carolina through education, public policy and economic development.
Dear Friends,
Would you like to produce clean, solar energy from your rooftop? You probably answered, "yes."
Yet even if we handed solar panels out on street corners, you might not be able to start generating clean power and saving money. Why not? Because state rules prevent you from easily connecting your solar panels to the electricity grid and receiving fair credit for the clean power they produce.
We can change this, by making fair rules. North Carolina needs good "net metering" and "interconnection" rules. This year we are working with our state legislature to get them.
Will you sign a petition asking Senator Basnight and Representative Hackney to support net metering?
Go to www.votesolar.org/nc.html
Best Regards,
Natalie Burlison
Administrative and Membership Assistant
North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association
Net Metering is the simplest, fairest way to bill customers who have their own renewable generators. Put simply, if you don't use a utility kilowatt-hour from the utility, you don't pay for it. If you create excess energy, your meter simply spins backwards, storing credit for next month - like cell-phone rollover minutes. In some form, it exists in 35 states, including all with successful renewable energy programs.
The NC Sustainable Energy Association works to ensure a sustainable future by promoting renewable energy and energy efficiency in North Carolina through education, public policy and economic development.
11/10/2007
Act NOW to Save Solar, Call Congress
Act Now To Save Solar!
ASES Action Alert
We need to make sure that renewable energy receives the support of Congress. Unfortunately, it appears that this may not occur unless WE ACT NOW.
Speaker Pelosi has stated that before Congress adjourns on November 16th, it must pass an energy bill. Great so far.
On Thursday morning, Senate Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi decided to drop the renewable energy standard AND THE TAX TITLE out of the energy bill. Without the tax title there can be no extension of the investment tax credit for solar and no extension of the production tax credit for wind energy.
In short, this means that our Congressional Leadership is going to vote on an energy bill with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for renewable energy. Eliminating the pro-solar provision from the Energy Act of 2005 JUST AS THE SOLAR INDUSTRY IS STARTING TO RAMP UP. Likewise the elimination of the Production Tax Credit will halt new wind development.
THIS ON-AGAIN-OFF-AGAIN SUPPORT MUST STOP. TIME IS SHORT.
ASES, along with many others, encourages you to pick up the phone and contact your congressional representatives. Please call their Washington offices and tell your Representatives and Senators to demand that Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi include the 8-year extension for the solar investment tax credit and the production tax credit in the energy bill.
Tell them that the challenges we face need to be addressed and these tax titles MUST be included.
If you want to say more here are some additional talking points:
Clean energy means jobs. ASES' report released this week demonstrates that the 8.5 million Americans working in the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries today, can grow to 40 million jobs by 2030 IF WE HAVE FEDERAL LEADERSHIP!
America needs carbon-free, local, renewable energy now!
The solution to global warming is to be found in the transition to a sustainable energy economy.
Energy independence comes from growing these industries, NOT FROM PULLING THE CARPET OUT FROM UNDER THEM.
Thank you for your support.
The American Solar Energy Society
Carolyn Beach,
American Solar Energy Society
303.443.3130 x107
The bill numbers are: Senate HR6 and House HR3221
ASES Action Alert
We need to make sure that renewable energy receives the support of Congress. Unfortunately, it appears that this may not occur unless WE ACT NOW.
Speaker Pelosi has stated that before Congress adjourns on November 16th, it must pass an energy bill. Great so far.
On Thursday morning, Senate Majority Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi decided to drop the renewable energy standard AND THE TAX TITLE out of the energy bill. Without the tax title there can be no extension of the investment tax credit for solar and no extension of the production tax credit for wind energy.
In short, this means that our Congressional Leadership is going to vote on an energy bill with ABSOLUTELY NOTHING for renewable energy. Eliminating the pro-solar provision from the Energy Act of 2005 JUST AS THE SOLAR INDUSTRY IS STARTING TO RAMP UP. Likewise the elimination of the Production Tax Credit will halt new wind development.
THIS ON-AGAIN-OFF-AGAIN SUPPORT MUST STOP. TIME IS SHORT.
ASES, along with many others, encourages you to pick up the phone and contact your congressional representatives. Please call their Washington offices and tell your Representatives and Senators to demand that Senator Reid and Speaker Pelosi include the 8-year extension for the solar investment tax credit and the production tax credit in the energy bill.
Tell them that the challenges we face need to be addressed and these tax titles MUST be included.
If you want to say more here are some additional talking points:
Clean energy means jobs. ASES' report released this week demonstrates that the 8.5 million Americans working in the energy efficiency and renewable energy industries today, can grow to 40 million jobs by 2030 IF WE HAVE FEDERAL LEADERSHIP!
America needs carbon-free, local, renewable energy now!
The solution to global warming is to be found in the transition to a sustainable energy economy.
Energy independence comes from growing these industries, NOT FROM PULLING THE CARPET OUT FROM UNDER THEM.
Thank you for your support.
The American Solar Energy Society
Carolyn Beach,
American Solar Energy Society
303.443.3130 x107
The bill numbers are: Senate HR6 and House HR3221
6/20/2007
4/30/2007
Energy Progress Elsewhere
Bangkok hosts key climate summit
A major conference on what needs to be done to combat climate change opens in Thailand's capital, Bangkok.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/science/nature/6606465.stm
Solar loans light up rural India
Thousands of people in rural India have used an innovative loan scheme to install solar power units, the UN says.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/science/nature/6600213.stm
A major conference on what needs to be done to combat climate change opens in Thailand's capital, Bangkok.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/science/nature/6606465.stm
Solar loans light up rural India
Thousands of people in rural India have used an innovative loan scheme to install solar power units, the UN says.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/science/nature/6600213.stm
2/22/2007
Cheap Solar Power Coming?
Cheap solar power poised to undercut oil and gas by half
by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
18/02/2007
Within five years, solar power will be cheap enough to compete with carbon-generated electricity, even in Britain, Scandinavia or upper Siberia. In a decade, the cost may have fallen so dramatically that solar cells could undercut oil, gas, coal and nuclear power by up to half. Technology is leaping ahead of a stale political debate about fossil fuels.
Anil Sethi, the chief executive of the Swiss start-up company Flisom, says he looks forward to the day - not so far off - when entire cities in America and Europe generate their heating, lighting and air-conditioning needs from solar films on buildings with enough left over to feed a surplus back into the grid.
The secret? Mr Sethi lovingly cradles a piece of dark polymer foil, as thin a sheet of paper. It is 200 times lighter than the normal glass-based solar materials, which require expensive substrates and roof support. Indeed, it is so light it can be stuck to the sides of buildings.
Rather than being manufactured laboriously piece by piece, it can be mass-produced in cheap rolls like packaging - in any colour.
The "tipping point" will arrive when the capital cost of solar power falls below $1 (51p) per watt, roughly the cost of carbon power. We are not there yet. The best options today vary from $3 to $4 per watt - down from $100 in the late 1970s.
Mr Sethi believes his product will cut the cost to 80 cents per watt within five years, and 50 cents in a decade.
It is based on a CIGS (CuInGaSe2) semiconductor compound that absorbs light by freeing electrons. This is then embedded on the polymer base. It will be ready commercially in late 2009.
"It'll even work on a cold, grey, cloudy day in England, which still produces 25pc to 30pc of the optimal light level. That is enough, if you cover half the roof," he said.
"We don't need subsidies, we just need governments to get out of the way and do no harm.
They've spent $170bn subsidising nuclear power over the last thirty years," he said.
His ultra-light technology, based on a copper indium compound, can power mobile phones and laptop computers with a sliver of foil.
"You won't have to get down on your knees ever again to hunt for plug socket," he said
Michael Rogol, a solar expert at Credit Lyonnais, expects the solar industry to grow from $7bn in 2004 to nearer $40bn by 2010, with operating earnings of $3bn.
The sector is poised to outstrip wind power. It is a remarkable boom for a technology long dismissed by experts as hopelessly unviable.
Mr Rogol said he was struck by the way solar use had increased dramatically in Japan and above all Germany, where Berlin's green energy law passed in 2004 forces the grid to buy surplus electricity from households at a fat premium. (In Britain, utilities may refuse to buy the surplus. They typically pay half the customer price of electricity.)
The change in Germany's law catapulted the share price of the German flagship company SolarWorld from €1.38 (67p) in February 2004 to over €60 by early 2006.
The tipping point in Germany and Japan came once households twigged that they could undercut their unloved utilities. Credit Lyonnais believes the rest of the world will soon join the stampede.
Mike Splinter, chief executive of the US semiconductor group Applied Materials, told me his company is two years away from a solar product that reaches the magic level of $1 a watt.
Cell conversion efficiency and economies of scale are galloping ahead so fast that the cost will be down to 70 US cents by 2010, with a target of 30 or 40 cents in a decade.
"We think solar power can provide 20pc of all the incremental energy needed worldwide by 2040," he said.
"This is a very powerful technology and we're seeing dramatic improvements all the time. It can be used across the entire range from small houses to big buildings and power plants," he said.
"The beauty of this is that you can use it in rural areas of India without having to lay down power lines or truck in fuel."
Villages across Asia and Africa that have never seen electricity may soon leapfrog directly into the solar age, replicating the jump to mobile phones seen in countries that never had a network of fixed lines. As a by-product, India's rural poor will stop blanketing the subcontinent with soot from tens of millions of open stoves.
Applied Materials is betting on both of the two rival solar technologies: thin film panels best used where there is plenty of room and the traditional crystalline (c-Si) wafer-based cells, which are not as cheap but produce a higher yield - better for tight spaces.
Needless to say, electricity utilities are watching the solar revolution with horror. Companies in Japan and Germany have already seen an erosion of profits because of an effect known "peak shaving". In essence, the peak wattage of solar cells overlaps with hours of peak demand and peak prices for electricity in the middle of the day, crunching margins.
As for the oil companies, they are still treating solar power as a fringe curiosity. "There is no silver bullet," said Jeroen Van der Veer, Shell's chief executive.
"We have invested a bit in all forms of renewable energy ourselves and maybe we'll find a winner one day. But the reality is that in twenty years time we'll still be using more oil than now," he said.
Might he be wrong?
by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
18/02/2007
Within five years, solar power will be cheap enough to compete with carbon-generated electricity, even in Britain, Scandinavia or upper Siberia. In a decade, the cost may have fallen so dramatically that solar cells could undercut oil, gas, coal and nuclear power by up to half. Technology is leaping ahead of a stale political debate about fossil fuels.
Anil Sethi, the chief executive of the Swiss start-up company Flisom, says he looks forward to the day - not so far off - when entire cities in America and Europe generate their heating, lighting and air-conditioning needs from solar films on buildings with enough left over to feed a surplus back into the grid.
The secret? Mr Sethi lovingly cradles a piece of dark polymer foil, as thin a sheet of paper. It is 200 times lighter than the normal glass-based solar materials, which require expensive substrates and roof support. Indeed, it is so light it can be stuck to the sides of buildings.
Rather than being manufactured laboriously piece by piece, it can be mass-produced in cheap rolls like packaging - in any colour.
The "tipping point" will arrive when the capital cost of solar power falls below $1 (51p) per watt, roughly the cost of carbon power. We are not there yet. The best options today vary from $3 to $4 per watt - down from $100 in the late 1970s.
Mr Sethi believes his product will cut the cost to 80 cents per watt within five years, and 50 cents in a decade.
It is based on a CIGS (CuInGaSe2) semiconductor compound that absorbs light by freeing electrons. This is then embedded on the polymer base. It will be ready commercially in late 2009.
"It'll even work on a cold, grey, cloudy day in England, which still produces 25pc to 30pc of the optimal light level. That is enough, if you cover half the roof," he said.
"We don't need subsidies, we just need governments to get out of the way and do no harm.
They've spent $170bn subsidising nuclear power over the last thirty years," he said.
His ultra-light technology, based on a copper indium compound, can power mobile phones and laptop computers with a sliver of foil.
"You won't have to get down on your knees ever again to hunt for plug socket," he said
Michael Rogol, a solar expert at Credit Lyonnais, expects the solar industry to grow from $7bn in 2004 to nearer $40bn by 2010, with operating earnings of $3bn.
The sector is poised to outstrip wind power. It is a remarkable boom for a technology long dismissed by experts as hopelessly unviable.
Mr Rogol said he was struck by the way solar use had increased dramatically in Japan and above all Germany, where Berlin's green energy law passed in 2004 forces the grid to buy surplus electricity from households at a fat premium. (In Britain, utilities may refuse to buy the surplus. They typically pay half the customer price of electricity.)
The change in Germany's law catapulted the share price of the German flagship company SolarWorld from €1.38 (67p) in February 2004 to over €60 by early 2006.
The tipping point in Germany and Japan came once households twigged that they could undercut their unloved utilities. Credit Lyonnais believes the rest of the world will soon join the stampede.
Mike Splinter, chief executive of the US semiconductor group Applied Materials, told me his company is two years away from a solar product that reaches the magic level of $1 a watt.
Cell conversion efficiency and economies of scale are galloping ahead so fast that the cost will be down to 70 US cents by 2010, with a target of 30 or 40 cents in a decade.
"We think solar power can provide 20pc of all the incremental energy needed worldwide by 2040," he said.
"This is a very powerful technology and we're seeing dramatic improvements all the time. It can be used across the entire range from small houses to big buildings and power plants," he said.
"The beauty of this is that you can use it in rural areas of India without having to lay down power lines or truck in fuel."
Villages across Asia and Africa that have never seen electricity may soon leapfrog directly into the solar age, replicating the jump to mobile phones seen in countries that never had a network of fixed lines. As a by-product, India's rural poor will stop blanketing the subcontinent with soot from tens of millions of open stoves.
Applied Materials is betting on both of the two rival solar technologies: thin film panels best used where there is plenty of room and the traditional crystalline (c-Si) wafer-based cells, which are not as cheap but produce a higher yield - better for tight spaces.
Needless to say, electricity utilities are watching the solar revolution with horror. Companies in Japan and Germany have already seen an erosion of profits because of an effect known "peak shaving". In essence, the peak wattage of solar cells overlaps with hours of peak demand and peak prices for electricity in the middle of the day, crunching margins.
As for the oil companies, they are still treating solar power as a fringe curiosity. "There is no silver bullet," said Jeroen Van der Veer, Shell's chief executive.
"We have invested a bit in all forms of renewable energy ourselves and maybe we'll find a winner one day. But the reality is that in twenty years time we'll still be using more oil than now," he said.
Might he be wrong?
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