The Price of Solar Plummets, Vindicating Visionaries

Written on 02/24 at 10:34 PM by Andy Posner 0 comments

Filed under: environment Renewable Energy in Ideas Blog

Ever since Bell labs developed the first working solar photovoltaic cell in the mid 1950s, people have both lauded the potential--and indeed the poetry--of solar power, while others--the “realists” and “pragmatists"--have derided it as a niche technology whose costs and inherent limitations would always prevent it from overtaking good ol’ fossil fuels and nuclear power as the dominant source of energy for the world. Unfortunately for the naysayers, the geopolitical, social, environmental and economic impacts of both fossil fuels and nuclear power--which require massive subsidies, cause billions of dollars in health issues, and are tremendously expensive to regulate and clean up after (see my recent article on the spill of coal sludge in the Tennessee Valley)--have begun to far outweigh the supposed affordability and abundance of traditional energy sources.

So while countries like the United States avoided implementing strong subsidies for solar energy and other renewable sources, visionary leaders in Germany and Spain enacted powerful subsidies for renewable energy and compelled utilities to buy that energy at higher rates in order to stimulate the market and create jobs. Sure, the pragmatists might have argued--and probably continue to argue--that the money being spent on these subsidies, which amounts to roughly 20 cents per month per utility customer in Germany, could be better spent elsewhere. But in the meantime, Germany has developed into a leader in solar energy, creating tens of thousands of jobs in the process. Now, according to the New York Times blog, Green Inc., it seems that visionary leadership has begun to bear fruit. In fact, “On Tuesday, First Solar, a global photovoltaic cell maker based in Tempe, Arizona said it had reached an “industry milestone” by reducing its production costs to the point where making solar cells that produce one watt of power costs $1.”

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Thoughts From Austin, Texas

Written on 02/14 at 04:48 AM by Andy Posner 0 comments

Filed under: Musings travel in Poetry & Musings Blog

I am currently writing from a hotel room in Austin, Texas, where I am visiting for the second annual Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI-U) conference. Last year I attended with Mike, and this year I am representing the Capital Good Fund, along with two of our other core team members. On the flight out here I listened to recordings of Martin Luther King speeches, and reflected a great deal on the nature of greatness, the nature of history, and the nature of those that bend history in the direction of justice. I was amazed--and excited--to learn that from 1964 (after the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Bill) and his death in 1968, Dr. King devoted himself tirelessly not only to racial justice but also to poverty alleviation and peace. In fact, in some of his speeches and sermons, King even talks about the need for black owned financial institutions--something I find tremendously interesting as I work to create a borrower-owned, environmentally focused financial institutions.

But above all else, what stood out to me about Dr. King as I listened to his voice bellow from the past and pursue the future was the extent to which his entire mental and physical life was absorbed by the pursuit of justice. Long before he died at the hands of an assassin he had given up his life to his cause, and I began thinking about my own life, my own pursuits.