Solar Energy seems to be the source that is believed because is virtually unlimited and all but guaranteed to be available but has been huge failures throughout the world because of the challenges posed by being able to harness it and then put it to use. The United States and many western European countries have been aggressively seeking a way to reduce reliance on the use of fossil fuels and nuclear power with a cleaner and safe energy source alternative. Germany for instance public opinion has been extremely opposed to nuclear energy to the point that they have a political party, The Greens, that has made getting rid of Nuclear energy as their parties platform which has caused the government to begin the process of shutting down all of their seventeen nuclear plants over the next decade, by switching to wind and solar through the use of tax subsides. Germany feels that these alternatives are close so at hand that Germany has created the world’s largest solar farm, the problem however is that there is very little sunshine where the farm is located. Germany is counting on a combination of wind and solar to make up 80% of their sources of electricity by 2050. Current problems with this mass exodus from Nuclear to Solar and Wind, is the technology is not advanced enough to store base load power, which is a steady supply of reserve electricity available at all times. Nuclear power is very good at keeping steady levels of base load power. Due to the lack of technological advancements in solar and wind paired with the abandonment of Nuclear energy has caused the country to go backwards in their clean and safe energy initiative by a more heavily dependence on coal, which has lead to the country to defeat its stated purpose of reducing greenhouse carbon gas omissions into the environment.
More specifically in the solar realm in December, the German equivalent to Solyndra, Solon filed for bankruptcy. The problems in Germany, along with other countries in Europe and in the United States are the tax subsides given to these companies to produce solar energy are expiring or expired causing turbulence to their business model. The global market price for these renewals has been dropped dramatically in part because of the low cost for solar cells being produced in where? You guessed it China. China has made domestic manufacturing companies that producer solar cells in Germany, Brittan, and the United States forced to lay off hundreds of employees in an attempt to stay competitive.
The path forward seems to leave the western world with a couple of options in order to balance reduction of dependency on fossil fuels while attempting to grow the renewable domestic energy market to create jobs for a sector that has a potential for huge growth. The US can renew the subsides, although there seems to be little interest in this due to the bitter taste that has been left after the taxpayers had to eat roughly half a billion dollars in the fallout of Solyndra. The United States could impose a tariff on the Chinese parts so that American Manufactures can remain competitive but this would lead to a much higher price to cost of using the energy compared to cheaper fossil fuels. Another option is to embrace the Chinese low cost solar parts which in the short run will help the solar market compete with the price fossil fuels but leaving the market could result with the Chinese creating a monopoly to which they would eventually raise prices. The other solution I see would be to indirectly subsides the solar market in a similar fashion as the ethanol market is set to take when subsides for corn growers expires. In which the government is set to enforce requirements on car manufactures to produce cars with certain levels of ethanol and fuel producers to mix a certain amount of ethanol, which will sustain the demand for ethanol into the future. If the government were to do the same for utility companies with mandatory feed-in tariffs it would undoubtedly raise prices but they would be across the board and it would also give the solar market much needed certainty. The option could be a huge incentive for potential investors sitting on the sidelines because of the current risk to invest in solar and hopefully continue the research and development for a relatively primitive energy source with infinite potential.
Additional Sources
:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204026804577100150091819074.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/us/politics/in-rush-to-assist-solyndra-united-states-missed-warning-signs.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/30/weighing-tariffs-on-chinese-solar-panels/?ref=solarenergy
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/27/business/energy-environment/clean-energy-projects-face-waning-subsidies.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=solarenergy
http://euobserver.com/1021/115352
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