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Article: News from spaceship Earth: Solar power on the rise.
- Article from:
- Countryside & Small Stock Journal
- Article date:
- March 1, 2001
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Countryside Publications Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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In theory, the amount of solar power available on Earth is more than 10,000 times greater than the total global energy consumption. So why isn't it more widely used?
Cost. Electricity from solar panels costs from 30 cents to $1 per kilowatt hour, or about twice as much as power from coal-fired plants.
The good news is, this is changing rapidly. According to a report in Forbes (Jan. 22), there are two main reasons: economies of scale, as the industry grows; and new materials that convert energy more efficiently.
Japanese manufacturers such as Sanyo and Kyocera say that solar electricity will be competitive with other power sources within five ...