INTRODUCTORY SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY ... - PHOTON Info

strange trip
The unlikely, and still unfinished, story of PV
in America, and what it says about the future
Don’t let the buzz fool you. While photovoltaics may be a hum of activity these days
– with big and small companies scrambling to grab a slice of the growing domestic
market and governments spending big to help solar expand – that hasn’t always
been the case. After predictions that the Bell Labs-invented solar battery would
transform the world in the 1950s proved wildly off the mark, the PV industry has
survived for decades as a niche market, sustained by unlikely patrons such as the
space program, Big Oil and pot growers. With the promise of PV more real than ever
today, PHOTON looks back at the people and events that have shaped the industry
and what guidance those experiences provide for the future.
An unlikely champion: Despite lingering suspicions that the oil and gas industry has been out to kill PV, the truth is that Big
Oil was one of the largest early markets for solar. Even today, as can be seen at this Wamsutter, Wyoming BP gas field, PV
is used to generate a current that prevents well and pipe corrosion and to operate monitoring equipment
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Rolf Schulten / photon-pictures.com