Sunlight provides a clean, renewable energy source. Along with wind and geothermal, solar energy offers a unique economic opportunity to countries that pursue these alternative energy sources. According to a recent report by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, global energy markets are poised to expand significantly, but the economies that will most likely benefit will be the countries willing to invest in clean technologies now – and the U.S. is falling behind.
“U.S. firms face serious competition in wind and solar power sectors,” the Pew Center paper emphasized. In particular, the paper states that the United States is falling behind in the area of solar power and battery manufacturing, where only two U.S. companies are competing for major contracts.
The Pew study cites rises in conventional fossil fuel prices, regional environmental degradation, and concerns for a warming planet as reasons for the increased drive for world economies to expand into renewable energy markets.
The United States could stand to benefit from the development of these markets, but only if it moves quickly to support domestic demand for and production of clean energy technologies.
These markets could also offer new job opportunities, such as installers, welders, and construction workers that will not only satisfy the domestic need for energy but also foster domestic job growth.
‘The implication for climate and clean energy policy is that it is not just the size of the U.S. clean energy market that matters, though it is important,’ says the Pew Center report, ‘but the size of the overall global market as well.’
China and European countries, in particular Denmark and Germany, have positioned themselves to be leaders in clean energy technologies by rapidly developing their own renewable energy industries. These countries are currently primed to gain the largest margins of the market in the decades ahead.
This report is based on the paper titled ‘Clean Energy Markets: Jobs and Opportunities.’ The Pew Center is a policy incubator located in Arlington, Va. that supports adopting a national market-based to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
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