Solar energy: a source of clean and renewable energy that is being seen as a growing sector, not only by the common wealth of global citizens, but also by the help of government subsidies. The Global Solar Market is compressed of a lot of challenges, some being competitive pricing from china, and others being the lack of technology and knowledge on how to properly adapt this new form of energy. As I’ve previously mentioned in my Germany Green Energy Policy we know that Germany is ranked number one for solar energy and the United States is ranked fifth. Moreover, there are countries such as Spain, Italy and Japan rounding out the top five. Thus showing that the global solar market is something worth talking about, along with the global government subsidies to bring photovoltaic energy.
The global energy sector is a challenging one and I feel Sir David Kind says it best as he describes what it will take in order to make solar price competitive to fusel fuels, it will be:
“a major scientific challenge. Requiring the same efforts as sending man to the moon.”
While it is a constant uphill battle to make the global market less and less reliant to non-carbon energy there has been hope as the Globally Solar energy will add about 36.7 gigawatts globally in 2013, and the solar capacity will rise about 20% from 2012 (1) and with the lower panel cost from china it is enticing other people to invest more into this technology.
While government subsides are helping the global market adapt to the new source of clean power, it is also dragging along a lot of negative attention from people who want our global market to stay reliant on fossel fuels (these are the people who have the most to loose ex. Sunoco, Chevron, Mobile). For instance, in 2011 global fossil fuel subsidies were $523 Billion while renewable energy subsides were $88 Billion in 2011. (2) Thus showing there is a huge difference in the commitment from governments regarding the aid given to each sector.
As we have discovered it will be a constant uphill battle for the solar and green energy sector, however, CEO of Enphase Energy, Paul Nahi makes it clear that:
“the best pathway to a stable renewable energy industry is to create self-sufficiency and independence from government financial assistance”
and I feel this couldn’t have been said any better, and goes to show that while this industry may not be getting as much aid as its competitors these global green energy companies are not going anywhere just because of a little fight in the marketplace. Really goes to show that there is hope for our global market to reach a more sustainable green energy view.
References:
1) http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-26/annual-solar-installs-to-beat-wind-for-first-time.html
2) http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/06/opinion/sunday/the-end-of-clean-energy-subsidies.html