As the United States gets ready toimplement emission control norms for its various power generating anddistributing industries, each of them has been jockeying for a favourableposition in order to gain benefits from the cap-and-pay system beingimplemented. After the coal industry’s attempts at trying to prove coal is acost-effective and less-polluting fuel, the solar energy industry is nowclaiming that their output per unit can be among the cheapest, even cheaper thancoal. The foundation of their claims is based onnot just the cost of the machinery but also on the adoption of various smartgrid, efficient energy generation, and transmission and storage technologies.The industry claims that combined together, these can help deliver electricityat a cost lower than that of a medium capacity coal fired plant which works 24hours a day. Though the initial cost of setting up a plant is high, the samegets distributed over the years as production cost is negligible once the plantis up and running. Sources claim that instead of investing in plants that havea low initial cost and high running cost, viz. oil, coal and gas fired plants,we should invest in plants that cost more in the beginning but have low runningcosts and a very low impact on the environment. Over time, coal and other fuelbased plants become expensive to run not only based on the cost of fuel butalso the cost to the environment – a cost which will soon be measurable oncethe carbon credits system is implemented in the country. Solar energy industry executives haveanother telling argument against peak-load plants – typically the gas-firedplants that are run to manage peak loads during the day when air conditioning,heating and other demands are at their highest. Since the demand for these ishighest when the sun is up i.e. in the middle of the day, solar plants will beideal to manage the peak load demand generated. However, the industry is notkeen in positioning solar as being a source for only peak load requirements.This would marginalise the industry and prevent it from covering the broaderspectrum of efficient and eco-friendly power generation needs that it iscapable of. Solar and wind energy generation industrieshave been seeing a rising demand in the past couple of years. With the focusshifting towards ‘green’ and sustainable development, the advantages that thesetwo offer for power generation are tremendous. The only drawbacks that theyface are the initial upfront cost in terms of machinery that is required andthe cost of land needed to set them up. On a like to like basis, a solar energypower generation facility requires four times as much space as a conventionalcoal or gas fired power plant. Additionally, the energy generated by the formerare only at certain times during the day compared to a conventional power plantwhich can run 24 hours if need be, hence the requirement for facilities whichcan efficiently store the power generated. Renewable energy technologies are the needof the hour and the dependence on fossil fuels needs to go down if we are topreserve the planet for our future generations to enjoy. The sooner volumesfrom renewable energy sources such as solar and wind reach tipping point, thecheaper will the technology become. | 
