G. Pascal Zachary writing in the New York Times, February 17, 2008, asked, "
Can Silicon Valley become a world leader in cheap and ubiquitous solar panels for the masses?"
He notes that developers in Silicon Valley, "hope to put the development of
solar technologies onto a faster track." He notes that computer chips and solar cells have a lot in common and quotes Paul Saffo, an associate engineering
professor at Stanford who says, “A
solar cell is just a big specialized chip, so everything we’ve learned
about making chips applies.”
Zachary also quotes T. J.
Rogers, the chief executive of Cypress Semiconductor, “This is
the biggest market Silicon Valley has ever looked at". Rogers also told Zachary that the global market for
new energy sources will ultimately be larger than the computer chip
market. He also interviewed R. Martin Roscheisen, the chief
executive of Nanosolar, which
shipped its first “thin film” solar panels in December 2007.
The article notes that the costs of solar PV cells is still high, but that Silicon Valley has a lot of expertise in developing silicon chips and other key technologies which could be used to improve solar PV efficiency and reduce costs.
Although the author refers to other solar developments in the USA he completely ignores work onside that country, for example in the European Union, which currently appears to be in advance of the USA in this area, primarily because of the strong political support for alternative energy in Europe and Europe's policies on mitigating the effects of climate change.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/17/business/17ping.html?em&ex=1203397200&en=482d2f675ae84440&ei=5087%0A
