By 
FORTUNE: China is utterly and totally dominating solar panels
While China has long been a leader in making solar panels, it’s now become the largest market, by far, for solar panels.
China has emerged as the world’s largest market for solar panels and in 2015 is expected to be home to a quarter of the planet’s new energy capacity from solar panels, according to a new report from GTM Research. China is rapidly adding as much power generation as possible, and solar is just one source of new energy generation in the country.
QUARTZ: Why we’re building an investment fund to back solar energy in Africa
If you find yourself bored at a business conference in Africa, try playing bingo with the words ‘leapfrog’ and ‘telecoms’. The story of how Africa went straight to mobile phones, never building a vast network of copper wire for its telephone infrastructure is told and retold. It is now a cliché in African business. Like most clichés, it is tiresome, but is also instructive.
Africa need not follow the same path to growth as other industrialized countries. It can skip long detours into redundant technology and accelerate the pace of growth.
And Africa is growing. In the next two years the World Bank expects Africa’s GDP to rise at an annual rate of around 5%–double the rate of the OECD. The rising African Lion is the new Asian Tiger.
VOX: Why wind and solar power are such a challenge for energy grids
Last week, I described a modeling study showing that it is possible to run the entire US economy on renewable energy: wind, water, and solar power. Technologically, the tools are available. Economically, the total system costs would be lower than a business-as-usual scenario. But politically, the plan is wildly ambitious, to the point of fantasy.
Among other things, it would require that policy and investment decisions be approached holistically, coordinated across multiple sectors, and made on the basis of multidecadal cost-benefit horizons, with enormous upfront investments paying off in health and climate benefits that unfold over decades.
THE TELEGRAPH: Solar power’s success is key to clean energy
They have become a commonplace sight across Britain: rows of darkly-winking panels nestling across rooftops, quietly generating free energy for the inhabitants below during daylight hours.
It is fair to say that the success of solar power has astonished energy analysts over the last five years. The International Energy Agency yesterday forecast that renewables will produce more power than coal within 15 years.Technically, if solar’s current rate of growth continues, its output could match world power demand in just 18 years time. From big banks such as UBS and Citigroup, to environmental groups and technology entrepreneurs, everyone is talking of a “solar revolution”. The sun has become mainstream, and the world is moving inexorably towards a future that is not only clean, but which promises to democratise energy generation.
Comments