Rob DeLine's blog

Here at Applied we talk a lot about scale, because ultimately scale is the key to unlocking solar power’s potential to transform our energy economy. The reason for this is simple: scale drives down costs. This is the essential lesson of solar’s historical development, and it has important implications for solar’s future.

If anyone has any doubts about the difficulties of the solar business in the U.S. then the recent decision to use a Canadian company to furnish the 3.4 acres of solar panels atop San Jose’s International Airport’s new rental car garage should come as no surprise.

Ever since the first conference to discuss what solar could do for meeting electricity supply held in 1973, in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, the solar industry has talked about the holy grail of "grid parity".

That refrain from Paul Simon’s song by the same title inserted itself into my brain recently as I read that Samsung had signed a $6.6 billion solar and wind power deal with Ontario, Canada.

California will miss its 20% RPS target in 2010, and the very issues that caused the state to miss its 2010 goal will persist as we slog toward a 33% RPS goal by 2020. So say some folks that ought to know.

Last night, Climate One and the Commonweatlh Club of California hosted a roundtable with four highly successful professionals, each dedicated to achieving California’s aggressive RPS goals while also establishing a robust clean tech industry that creates and keeps jobs in the state of California. On stage was (L to R) a pro-renewable chairman of the California Public Utility Commission, Mike Peevey, an executive from a progressive utility, Nancy McFadden of PG&E, a CEO from the #1 solar capital equipment company, Mike Splinter of Applied Materials, a practical environmentalist, Bob Epstein of Environmental Entrepreneurs, and, no, that’s not an oxymoron, as well as moderator, Greg Dalton founder of Climate One.