The sun floods the earth with enough solar energy in one hour to power the entire world. Infact, the sun provides more energy in one day, than the annual cumulative requirement of 6 billion people on the planet!
Unlike fossil fuels, whose supplies are limited, the sun is expected to continue to burn brightly for another five billion years or more.
The solar industry grew at a compound annual rate of 35 percent between 2000 and 2009, despite the global recession. The industry generated $38.5 billion in revenues in 2009 and is expected to generate revenues of $100 billion in 2014. Despite this growth potential, however, the widespread deployment of solar is still limited by cost. Many industry experts thought thin-film technology would address this problem. But although thin film is cheaper, it is also less efficient, with more thin-film panels required to produce the same output of electricity.
But despite the dramatic growth of the solar industry, solar electricity accounts for less than 1 percent of global electricity generation. The reason is that solar cells still cost too much to produce. The practical efficiency of crystalline silicon solar cells ranges from 15 to 19 percent, meaning that such cells harvest only a fraction of the sun’s energy. In order to power the world, solar cells must be able to convert more sunlight into electricity at a lower cost.
