I’m increasingly bullish on solar energy, and I’m not alone. The market capitalization of the publicly traded solar companies on US exchanges has grown from about $1 billion in 2004 to about $70 billion today. The cost of generating electricity from solar photovoltaic panels is dropping, and the industry says it can get to grid parity in the next five to 10 years. That may seem like a long time, but it’s less time than it will take to get the next nuclear power plant built and, almost surely, less time than it will take to build a so-called clean coal plant to scale.
In the current issue of FORTUNE (cover date: Oct. 15), I take a look at an interesting solar energy company called SunPower and the three characters behind it—a soft-spoken former Stanford professor and solar pioneer named Dick Swanson who started the company, an outspoken Silicon Valley CEO named T.J. Rodgers (above) who saved it, and a hard-charging CEO & tri-athlete named Tom Werner who now runs it. It was an enjoyable story to write, for a lot of reasons–met lots of people, felt some excitement building in the industry, visited the top executives of other fast-growing solar companies, including two in my neighborhood, SunEdison in Beltsville and BP Solar in Frederick, Md. Solar panels are actually made in the Frederick plant, which is undergoing a major expansion. In fact, solar is one of those green tech businesses that has the potential to create many thousands of jobs in the U.S.
The SunPower story is posted online here but it will be a better read in the magazine with photos and charts. This is also FORTUNE’s annual “Most Powerful Women†issue. My friend Betsy Morris wrote the cover story, a profile of Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy. Xerox has a great corporate culture and tradition.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
You answered a number of questions in your article that your post left me wondering – we’re talking about distributed load (cells on individual buildings), etc. Your post comment that seems to imply achieving grid parity with solar cells is the same as building a baseload plant is somewhat misleading, in my opinion. Solar cells work in daytime only, just as wind turbines only work in windy conditions. So on hot, windless summer nights (or dead air cold ones), the only alternatives to baseload for someone counting on their distributed generator is to have a very large set of batteries, and hope they can recharge the next day. Otherwise, there is a continued need for baseload units – and many of the units we have now are getting old and need to be replaced. I’m also wondering a bit about materials costs and toxic remnants from the manufacturing process for solar cells if this is ramped up significantly, but that is beyond the scope of your report.
All that being said, anything that can reduce reliance on baseload, even intermittently, is something that needs to be looked at closely. (That’s as long as the consumer understands this doesn’t mean you can always count on the intermittent sources.)
James Aach
Author – “Rad Decision: A Nuclear Power Novel”. The first entertaining insider look at the real world of electric power generation and nuclear energy. http://RadDecision.blogspot.com