China, Europe, US gear up for big solar push

As complementary pressures from both the cost of fossil fuel and the impact of climate change drive the industrial powers toward renewable energy alternatives, government spending, subsidies and support for solar power generation and solar technology innovation are on the rise. China now claims more than 15% of the global production of polysilicon, used in solar panels, and more than 25% of solar modules. The Chinese leader in the field is SunTech an industry giant poised to become the world's second-largest producer of solar modules, fresh off the production of one of the most efficient commercial solar cells (as opposed to experimental or design phase solar cells).

The New York Times documents the recent push by the Chinese government to subsidize and encourage production of solar panels and development of solar tech. This push includes incentives to sell materiel overseas at less than the cost of manufacture and delivery, presumably in order to gain competitive advantage in emerging and growing markets.

Meanwhile European consortia are pushing hard to develop solar generation capacity in North Africa, and the US government is pumping 2.3 billion US dollars into the development and growth of clean energy technology.

Coupled with the push from the Japanese government and industry as reported in previous articles on this site, the question of whether and when these incentives will begin to produce in terms of efficient, clean, and profitable alternative energy infrastructures.