The Future is Bright

Article Tools

Image Gallery

Print

E-mail

Comments

RSS

The company's metal roofing panels which are a variation on the shingle, are up to 18 feet long. The panels use the same thin film technology and can replace a roof on an ordinary house. The projected life of the solar roof is 20 years of producing a steady two kilowatts, not quite enough to run an average home. Stanford Ovshinsky, founder and chief executive of Energy Conversion Devices, says the roof makes a house more efficient in that a roof can now have the dual purpose of protecting us from the weather and providing us with electricity, while ridding us of the need for an awkwardly separate infrastructure for our energy. Founded in 1960, Stanford and Iris Ovshinsky's company has come a long way from its idealistic beginnings. Most famous for making the nickel batteries used in electric cars, it now has contracts with GM and Canon. Ovshinsky still speaks passionately about a clean earth, rails against the oil companies, and believes in the idealistic principles of solar energy. "Science and technology should be used to solve societal problems rather than create them," he says.

Solar end the Government

All the manufacturers are, of course, optimistic about the future of solar. And it doesn't stop there. Atlanta has announced its intention to become a totally solar city. There seems to be no end to the enthusiasm about the potential of solar energy. But despite remarkable developments, many obstacles remain. As Ovshinsky put it, "PV has so far existed for niche markets. This is not a technology problem, however, it is an infrastructure problem."

One of the greatest obstacles in the U.S. has been the existing electrical infrastructure, and many people in the renewables industries see the deregulation of utilities as very encouraging for solar and wind energy technologies. "We're locked into this Soviet style utility industry. It's a natural monopoly in which 95 percent of [Colorado] consumers are forced to buy very dirty, coal-generated power;" says Bill Schoer, a columnist for the Denver Post and a consultant to small businesses working to deregulate utilities and broaden the energy choices available to consumers. "Utilities know deregulation is coming and there is public pressure to deregulate, and so they have offered these green pricing options, which is pretty much bogus because it's such a trivial amount," Schoer says in reference to the small percentage of renewable energy options utilities are now offering customers.

CHOICES, CHOICES:

"We're locked into this Soviet-style utility industry. It's a natural monopoly in which 95 percent of consumers are forced to buy very dirty, coal-generated power."

Detroit Edison and Colorado Public Service Company sell electricity produced by solar energy, and in 1994, Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) converted a former nuclear plant that shut down in 1989 into the world's largest utility-owned solar power plant. The site is covered with 1,750 solar panels, and generates enough electricity for more than 700 homes. This year SMUD opened the U.S.'s largest free-standing, solar-tracking photovoltaic solarport at the Sacramento airport. The installation supplies electricity for the power grid, provides the airport with an electric vehicle recharging center, and handily provides shade for parked cars.

RSS | Comments | E-mail | Print