Word: solarized
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Last month 68 utilities, from New York City's Consolidated Edison to San Francisco's Pacific Gas & Electric, formed a consortium to purchase $500 million worth of solar panels over the next six years. These utilities, which serve 40% of the country's electric customers, hope solar power can help replace aging plants that will begin phasing out by the end of the decade. Says Scott Sklar, director of the Solar Energy Industries Association, which represents more than 500 U.S. solar-equipment makers: "This will allow the solar industry to double its manufacturing capacity and acquire new capital to ramp...
...utility is more enthusiastic about letting the sun shine in than SMUD, which is putting solar cells on 100 residential roofs a year as part of a five-year pilot project. Homeowners pay nothing for the installation but see a 15% surcharge on their monthly bills to help defray the cost. Even so, the chance to become a solar citizen has enticed more volunteers than SMUD can accommodate. Encouraged by the response, the utility has ordered 100,000 more solar panels, enough to generate electricity for 2,400 homes, and is purchasing land for a 100-MW solar furnace that...
What SMUD is doing parallels what developing countries have been up to for more than a decade. These nations, which cannot afford to build costly nuclear or fossil-fuel plants in rural areas, now buy nearly two-thirds of all solar panels produced in the U.S. "In Mexico there are 28 million people without electricity, and Mexico has the most ambitious solar electrification program in the world," says Sklar. Elsewhere, India and Zimbabwe are using World Bank financing to light up remote areas with solar power; India is installing photovoltaic systems in 38,000 villages, and Zimbabwe is bringing...
...where there is little government help, the Real Goods catalog has become the bible of America's environmentally aware set. With a circulation of 400,000, the catalog offers everything for the energy-efficient home, including composting toilets, solar radios and wind generators in addition to solar equipment. Hot-selling items include fold-up solar panels the size of a briefcase that can power laptop computers. Technicians at Real Goods headquarters in Ukiah, California, stand ready to handle customers' questions and help plan alternative energy systems over the phone...
...solar power will have to wait for the cost of converting sunlight to fall far enough to pay for the cost of installing a system. "Solar is competitive now if you take the long view," says SMUD general manager Freeman. "And it's going to be highly competitive by the end of the decade." If he's right, the forecast for the industry in the 21st century is bright and sunny...