Hot Stories
Search For Hot Stories
On the Longest Day of the Year, Celebrate Solar Power!
Submitted on 06/20/12, 01:48 PM | Click Here for the full article: Huffington Post
The past few years have ushered in an unprecedented, unforeseen, and largely unheralded solar energy revolution. As recently as 2005, global installed solar power capacity stood at 4.5 gigawatts (GW). Today, the figure exceeds 65 GW, which is equivalent to the capacity of about 130 average-sized coal-fired power plants.
To put recent growth of solar power in perspective it helps to look at how it has played out in particular places. Take the U.S., for example. Solar is America's fastest growing industry, and already employs more than 100,000 men and women -- more than U.S. steel production and more than U.S. coal mining. In California, which leads the nation on solar power, the number of installed solar energy systems has increased from about 500 in 1999 to more than 50,000 in 2011. These days, when you fly into a place like Oakland, you can see your plane reflected in the rooftops below.
Comments (0)
This story does not have any comments. Be the first to leave a comment below.
Featured Hot Product
Maxwell Technologies - 16 V Small Cell Module
Maxwell Technologies’ 16V small cell ultracapacitor module provides energy storage and power delivery in a compact, cost effective module. The modules are specifically engineered to provide cost-effective solutions for 1.5MW and smaller wind turbine pitch control, small UPS systems, telecommunications and other lighter duty industrial electronics applications. The 16V module is based upon the high reliability, 350F radial D-Cell®. In addition to meeting or exceeding demanding industrial application requirements for both watt-hours of energy storage and watts of power delivery per kilogram, all of these products will perform reliably for more than five hundred-thousand discharge-recharge cycles.
