The Age of Economic Solar Energy Begins

Most of you reading this are entrepreneurs. A familiar entrepreneurial challenge in launching anything new is overcoming the unfamiliarity and resistance in the marketplace.

That’s not a problem with solar. Sunlight is clean and life giving. We love the Sun. We want to bask in it.

How ready are people for Solar? People not only like solar. They're begging for it.

The Solar Energy Opportunity
At more than $1 Trillion per year, electricity production is tied with global oil production and bested only by food, clothing and shelter as a share of global GDP. This is almost entirely based on coal and nuclear. And nobody is happy about that.

Disrupting and transforming this global power infrastructure to cheaper, more economical and more flexible solar energy will be the most important economic and cultural change force of our lifetimes. Our energy consumption and conservation habits based on scarcity, inflexibility and even guilt will change radically.

Solar energy’s roots begin just over a hundred years ago. Albert Einstein was awarded his single Nobel Prize not for the E=MC2 of atomic energy, but for the photoelectric effect. The first solar cells were realized in the mid 1950s and in 1975, the first terrestrial solar electric company was formed.

We find ourselves at the threshold of this new era. California in particular is uniquely equipped to take the leading role in the next generation of photovoltaic (PV) energy production.

1. Drawable talent from native Semiconductor Manufacturing, Equipment and Thin Film industries
2. Entrepreneurial Spirit, Venture Capital, Research Universities
3. The most solar-positive marketplace in the United States
4. California by itself is now the 3rd largest market for solar energy in the world as a result of Governor Schwarzenegger “million solar roofs” initiative
5. A base of existing companies such as SunPower leading the World in silicon cell efficiency.
6. Start-ups like Miasole and Nanosolar who are aimed at slashing the cost of solar power by more than half.
   
   Are you ready for one trillion dollars to change hands as Solar takes its place in our society? Everything is about to change.