Joel Makower is a widely respected writer and consultant on issues of sustainable business, clean technology and green markets. His essays on environmental business and technology are a regular feature of Sustainability Sundays. Take it away, Joel:
For the better part of the past year, my colleagues and I at Clean Edge have been exploring the following question: What would an American “man on the moon” effort look like that could rapidly and dramatically transform solar energy into a truly cost-competitive, job-creating source of electricity? The project is the third in a series of research reports we’ve produced since 2002 for Co-op America’s Solar Catalyst Group.The fruits of that labor, called the Solar High-Impact National Energy (SHINE) Project, is a revenue-neutral, public-private partnership. SHINE will be released on Tuesday, March 1, but I thought I’d offer Worldchangers a sneak preview.Some excerpts from the introduction:
SHINE calls for an ambitious and aggressive, three-pronged initiative to make solar both cost-competitive and a significant part of America’s energy mix within 10 years. It emphasizes the positive benefits American-made solar can have on energy security, U.S. business growth, the creation of thousands of jobs across the nation, environmental and public health, and reducing stress on America’s electricity grid.
SHINE is centered on the uniquely American way of solving problems: by stimulating markets -- in this case, to the point where solar can take off and bring jobs, prosperity and security to America through private-sector initiative. It can address environmental problems such as climate change without resorting to regulations and treaties. Combined, SHINE’s three programs reduce the price of solar far faster than would take place under business as usual, thereby creating mass markets for solar far sooner than they would otherwise develop. By 2025, SHINE would reduce prices to as low as 80 cents per installed watt, compared to about $2.71 for the business-as-usual case -- a dramatic difference that would make solar cost-competitive with -- perhaps cheaper than -- fossil fuels and other more polluting energy sources.And, along the way, SHINE would ensure America’s participation in what is expected to be one of the fast-growing global industries of the next decade and beyond. It would reverse the loss of high-paying jobs already taking place in the U.S. renewable energy sector, which has seen companies and jobs depart American shores for Japan, Korea, China, Germany, and elsewhere. And by reclaiming leadership in this sector, the United States would enjoy the creation of up to 500,000 good-paying U.S. jobs -- jobs that cannot be exported overseas because they involve local installation and maintenance of solar systems on rooftops and in neighborhoods in every community.The full (free) report can be downloaded on March 1 at www.cleanedge.com and www.solarcatalyst.com.
