Beyond the Daily Roller Coaster, the Clean-tech Wave Rolls On
Being in the clean tech industry these days is a little like how it must feel to be one of the Republican presidential candidates. One day things look great, you're the talk of the buzz-o-sphere, riding a surge of momentum as The Next Big Thing. But wake up the next day to a piece of breaking bad news, and suddenly it's nothing but doom and gloom, everyone's trashing me, and how long can I actually stay in this race?DELL CYPRESS SEMICONDUCTOR ACCENTURE ACER ADOBE SYSTEMS ADVANCED SEMICONDUCTOR ENGINEERING
In the last year, the world has seen many significant developments that have had an impact ? both direct and indirect ? on renewable energy. The global economic recession entered a new phase in 2010, marked by massive public finance crises ? felt most acutely in Europe ? that led several governments to announce incentive cuts for solar energy. Natural gas prices remained low, temporarily reducing the competitiveness of renewable energy. At the same time, worldwide developments highlighted the security, economic and human costs of relying so heavily on fossil and nuclear energy.
As the costs associated with renewable forms of energy continue to drop and the prices of fossil fuels remain volatile, more Latin American nations are turning to wind and solar, as well as geothermal and biofuels, as solutions to achieve energy security.