Where have all the solar factories gone?

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has written a powerful column this week about how the US is losing (has already lost?) the race to develop a thriving domestic solar-panel industry. He profiles a California-based company, Applied Materials, that makes the machines that make microchips inside computers. More recently they began making machines to make solar panels. In the last two years, the company has built 14 new solar panel factories. But here's the punch-line: not one of those factories is located in the US.

Friedman explains that the primary reason for this is the lack of meaningful, uniform public policies designed to scale-up demand for solar energy here at home. 

"If we want to launch a solar industry here, big-time, we need to offer the kind of long-term certainty that Germany does or impose the national requirement on our utilities to generate solar power as China does or have the government build giant solar farms, the way it built the Hoover Dam, and sell the electricity."

He also has some choice words for those who doubt the economic opportunities that exist to develop good green jobs in the US. 

"If you read some of the anti-green commentary today, you’ll often see sneering references to "green jobs.â€ The phrase is usually in quotation marks as if it is some kind of liberal fantasy or closet welfare program (and as if coal, oil and nuclear don’t get all kinds of subsidies). Nonsense. In 2008, more silicon was consumed globally making solar panels than microchips..."

 And that's the rub. Those 'old power' industries have spent millions on campaign contributions and astro-turf campaigns aimed at blocking policies that promote clean energy solutions. Unless the rest of us can organize successfully to overcome their obstructionism, we may miss out on the chance to develop a thriving solar industry capable of supporting industrial scale jobs right here at home. 

That's why it is exciting to see that KFTC and our allies are working to build a new coalition aimed at promoting sustainable energy solutions in Kentucky. Stay tuned for more information about this growing effort in the weeks ahead. In the meantime, all of us need to make sure our elected representatives hear from us - often - about the urgent need to adopt sustainable energy policies that can create good jobs while protecting the environment and public health.