Industry leader says adopting solar energy is happening faster than expected
DALLAS (Jan 30, 2012) – The accelerating growth worldwide of harvesting electricity from the sun with photovoltaic’s will require increased numbers of installation workers, futurists predict.
We are seeing “tremendous growth,” says Charles (Chuck) Korstad, vice president of global quality and reliability at Applied Materials that makes the equipment used to produce solar panels. “Over the last five years (solar power has) grown from about three gigawatts of installation to 18 to 20 gigawatts, a sevenfold increase in PV (photovoltaic) solar capacity worldwide.”
Korstad said power companies are becoming more interested in using solar PV as it approaches price parity with oil. Cost-per-watt continues to come down and has decreased some 400 percent, he pointed out.
Korstad spoke by phone from his office in Santa Clara, California, on the ScienceNews Radio Network program, the Promise of Tomorrow with Colonel Mason. The program originates in Dallas, Texas, and is now archived and Webcast for its world audience.
When Mason pressed Korstad on where solar panels are manufactured he admitted most of them come from China and are a huge export to the rest of the world. “China has targeted solar,” said Korstad, “they want to be the leader.”
This push to adopt solar on rooftops and around power transmission facilities is expected to cause increased demand for workers qualified at installation. Korstad predicted we are going to see over one-third of our electricity being created from clean energy on a global basis, “producing a much cleaner environment for the citizens of the world, it will come faster than forecast. For our children and grandchildren’s sake that will be exciting to see.”
Korstad will be a keynote speaker addressing the 2012 IEEE Green Technologies Conference produced by Region 5 of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) held April 19-22, 2012, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The public is urged to attend by registering at the website.
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