Energy Industry Background

America’s voracious demand for energy shows no signs of abating anytime soon. The U.S. burns through 20 million barrels of oil per day and is projected to use 28.3 million barrels per day by 2025, which will result in double the amount we import. The total energy use of petroleum, natural gas, nuclear and renewables is projected to increase 38% by 2025. Spencer Abraham, the Secretary of Energy to President George W. Bush, has predicted that America’s growing electric power needs can be met only if we build between 1,300 and 1,900 new power plants by 2025! For solutions, scientists are going back to basics – to the sun.[1]      Most estimates place a 50-year cap on the fossil fuel age before the supplies dwindle; our consumption on a worldwide level becomes too high, forcing the prices into a vicious upward spiral. As commonly known, our society must continue to more forward with cost-effective renewable alternative energy sources such as solar, wind, thermal, etc. “We’re going to need everything we can get from biomass, everything we can get from solar, everything we can get from wind,” says Michael Pacheco, director of the National Bioenergy Center, part of the National Renewable Energy Laboratories (NREL) in Golden, Colorado.[2]

     Sunlight is a powerful, renewable – and often overlooked – source of energy. For example, in 2003 the United States generated about 4 trillion kWh of electricity. Present day photovoltaic technology could generate this total amount of electricity in 10⁴ km² – which is only 3 percent of the area of Arizona! Furthermore global carbon dioxide levels are rising at the rate of 1.5 to 3 ppm per year as a result of fossil fuel burning. By the end of the century they are expected to reach 970 ppm, which is nearly triple the historic values of 200-300 ppm! [3] 

      Not only the world, but also our country in particular must make a major commitment to readily available, cost competitive, sustainable, non-polluting alternative energy sources. Photovoltaic power through solar collectors is one highly promising avenue. The biggest challenge will be lowering the price of photovoltaics. Electricity produced from panels of solid silicon detectors historically has a total cost of 20-25 cents per kWh. Compare to 4-6 cents for coal-fired electricity, 5-7 cents for power produced by natural gas, and approximately 7 cents for nuclear power.[4]

      While at Texas Instruments in Dallas in 1974, Dr. Arlen Barksdale pioneered advanced silicon growth technology for the 4 kilobyte RAM chip that heralded the advent of personal computers. Now Dr. Barksdale is pioneering the deployment of solar energy technology. The solar industry is experiencing a stellar revolution as its technology proceeds apace down the learning curve making solar generated electricity more competitive creating bankable business opportunities in the current economic development climate.[5]