[MCN] Financial Times : the age of solar power

[Lance Olsen]

Financial Times November 5, 2015 12:01 pm

Sunshine revolution: the age of solar power
From the US to China, solar power is poised to 
tackle climate change and shake up the 
electricity industry
Ed Crooks and Lucy Hornby

Excerpt:

"On a global scale, solar power is still tiny, 
providing only about 1 per cent of the world's 
electricity, according to the International 
Energy Agency, the think-tank backed by developed 
countries' governments. It is now clear, though, 
that it has the potential to contribute much more 
than that. Solar power and onshore wind power are 
the two most cost-effective forms of renewables 
but solar has the greater capacity for costs to 
fall further. "Wind is basically mechanics; solar 
is electronics. And the progress there is much 
more rapid, and will continue," says Gérard 
Mestrallet, chief executive of Engie, the French 
energy group. Solar is also flexible in scale: it 
can power a calculator, or a city.

"Yet for some the disruptive potential of solar 
power is not so much a promise as a threat. 
Established electric utilities are facing 
challenges they had not dreamt about five years 
ago. Many are starting to push back. It is a 
battle that will shape the future of the industry 
- and possibly of the climate."

End excerpt:

High quality global journalism requires 
investment. Please share this article with others 
using the link below, do not cut & paste the 
article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for 
more detail. Email ftsales.support at ft.com to buy 
additional rights. 
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/488483ca-8334-11e5-8e80-1574112844fd.html#ixzz3qjVaAN00

-- 
================================
"Conservationists are unquestionably useful 
people. And among the many useful services that 
they have rendered has been that of dramatizing 
the vast appetite the United States has developed 
for materials of all kinds."

"But what of the appetite itself? Surely this is 
the ultimate source of the problem. If it 
continues its geometric course, will it not one 
day have to be restrained? Yet in the literature 
of the resource problem this is the forbidden 
question. Over it hangs a nearly total silence. 
It is as though, in the discussion of the chance 
for avoiding automobile accidents, we agree not 
to make any mention of speed!"

John K. Galbraith. "How much should a country consume?"
In Jarrett, Henry (editor), Perspectives on Conservation.
John Hopkins Press. 1958
================
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://bigskynet.org/pipermail/missoula-community-news_bigskynet.org/attachments/20151106/0c531bfd/attachment-0002.html>