“Solar power will cost next to nothing. The fuel – the sun – is free. The price of the photovoltaic cells used to covert sunlight into electricity will plummet. Just give it time. “

That’s what Ian MacLellan, the founder, vice-chairman and chief technology officer of Arise Technologies says. Arise Technologies is a Canadian photovoltaic (PV) cell company that can’t seem to get much business going in Canada and the US…so they’re dealing with Germany. Apparently Germany is crazy for solar energy these days, enough to warrant funding Arise to build a factory in Bischofswerda(outside of Dresden, in Eastern Germany) that’s estimated to put out around $375 million worth in PV cells each year once it’s finished in a month or so. That’s a pretty good deal, seeing as it’s triple what the whole company is currently worth.

What I want to know is why the heck Canada and the US aren’t getting in on the action anywhere near as much. The lack of US acceptance of solar energy is especially amazing to me(although Canada isn’t impressing me too much on the issue either, with a few exceptions). They are among the countries which develop the newest, best, and most innovative solar tech…and one of the slowest to adopt those technologies. I really hope that after some of the current pilot projects (such as the Kelowna Solar Powered Lighting Project I talked about a few days back) can convince enough of the right people to get something done about seriously implementing some of these great technologies.

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