Ohio State physicist Robert Davis envisions an America where millions of people use solar panels to power appliances at home and work without contributing to global warming.
“It’s not far-fetched at all,” said Davis, who has worked for 20 years with devices related to solar cells. “A lot of the technologies we need are there, but they haven’t been developed to make them cost effective.”
Officials for the Ohio Department of Development recently announced giving $18.6 million in funding for the creation of the Wright Center for Photovoltaics Innovation and Commercialization.
The center combines the work of researchers at OSU, the University of Toledo, Bowling Green State University, Battelle Memorial Institute, Edison Materials Technology Center, and Green Energy Ohio, with the work of 20 Ohio companies.
“One of the major goals of a Wright Center is commercialization, whether it is panels, materials, assembling or installations,” Davis said. “A lot of the companies we’re working with are spin-offs of the glass industry in Ohio.”
Bill Spratley, executive director of Green Energy Ohio, a non-profit organization promoting environmentally and economically sustainable energy policies and practices, said because of the relationship to the glass industry, Ohio is a “sleeping giant” in the solar industry.
“Ohio is ideally positioned because of our industrial base, which involves steel and glass,” Spratley said. ” We have one of the fastest growing solar manufacturing companies in the world, First Solar. They are sending most of their panels to Germany.”
Spratley said there is not much demand in Ohio for the solar cells that First Solar makes because the majority of consumers may think of solar cells the way they once thought of personal computers before they became affordable.
He also said renewable energy industries are likely to become economic power-houses, similar to the personal computing industry that surged in the 1980s and 1990s, and Davis agreed.
“If someone comes up with a solar array that you can put on your roof and then cut your electric bill in half, that person is going to make a lot of money,” Davis said.
Davis and Spratley also agreed the power of the energy market is not enough to get millions of people to use solar energy and the young industry will need a boost from policy makers in Washington, D.C., and state governments to cause a surge in consumer interest.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, solar energy currently generates about one tenth of a percent of the nation’s electricity.
“One of the ways to get this into the market is to create incentives such as tax credits for the industry and the consumer,” Spratley said.
Fred Hitzhusen, an OSU professor of environmental and development economics, said in addition, federal and state governments should tax the fossil fuel industries based on economic assessments of how those fuels harm the environment and people’s health.
Hitzhusen said in addition to being a source of funding for research into those fields, those types of taxes would spark private investment and mass consumer interest in solar energy and other renewables.
Davis said the political and economic climate is warming to the idea of investing into solar energy and other renewables.
“You can see it in shifts, in federal and state funding, but also in venture capital funding,” Davis said. “It is coming from people trying to make investments in technology that is going to be important in the future.”
Spratley said Ohio’s growing solar industry will create jobs.
As a way to address global warming, he said, “It’s not a panacea, but it’s part of the solution.”
Tom Over can be reached for comment at [email protected].
