Interview: Expert eyes "bright" future for U.S. solar energy

Despite economic recession, 2009 was yet another year of strong growth for solar energy in the United States, and the future for U.S. solar energy is definitely "bright," Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the U.S. Solar Energy Industries Association told Xinhua recently in an exclusive interview.

Overall U.S. solar electric capacity, including both photovoltaic and concentrating solar power installations, increased by nearly 40 percent, according to the expert. This was driven primarily by strong demand in the residential and utility- scale markets, state and federal policy advances and declining technology prices. As a result, total solar industry revenue reached 4 billion U.S. dollars, a 36 percent increase over 2008.

The solar industry contributed to the overall economy by adding 17,000 new jobs from coast to coast in 2009. It also employs 46, 000 U.S. workers and supports an additional 33,000 jobs in other sectors.

Resch thought the United States has actually been very proactive in use of solar energy and the government is playing a very large role in expanding both the demand as well as the supply of solar energy in the U.S.. For example, in the Recovery Act, which was passed in February of 2009, there were 19 separate provisions to expand use of solar energy. The U.S. government has also spent a decent of money on research and development, hoping companies take concepts and really deliver them to markets. And everything from solar run on government buildings to new incentives, to lower the upfront cost for solar to the consumers.

According to Resch, U.S. solar energy saw an increase from the Obama administration of nearly 60 percent in the funding for research and development in 2009. Most of that money has spent on rapid commercialization, taking technologies out of the national laboratories at universities, and bringing them to commercial operation quickly. Besides, what the industry also sees is beyond the government funding, and money from venture capitalists. In 2009, much of the real technology and innovation that are occurring are coming out of companies that are venture-capital- backed.

Resch is very confident of the future of U.S. solar energy.

"Where we are poised right now as a country is to see in 2010, the market fully double, can grow by over 100 percent of the total solar market," said Resch. "Long term, we are looking at a market of about 10,000 megawatts by 2015. That is about 20 times larger than the market is today in the United States."

He said 92 percent of all Americans think that a lot more solar should be deployed throughout the United States and the federal government should be providing more support for solar energy.

"Ninety-two percent of the public. There is no other industry out there that has that kind of public support. So as the costs come down and more innovation occurs on the financing side of solar and makes it available to every homeowner in America, people are going to start going solar very, very quickly," Resch said. " And automatically, what you are going to see is that solar is ubiquitous. It's on every home in the country, every building in the country, every bus station ... Automatically, solar will be the largest source of generation certainly during my life."

Source: Xinhua