China's Visible Solar Power Success

Suntech Power's ebullient CEO Shi Zhengrong got plenty of press at Davos for his proclamation that solar power will be able to compete without subsidies against conventional power sources in half the world by 2015. Shi said that solar is already competitive with fossil fuels in India, Hawaii, Italy and Spain. Others at the alpine power-fest agreed with Shi, who runs one of the world's largest and most important solar panel manufacturers. The head of the world's largest wind company, Vestas, as well as another Chinese solar panel producer, Trina, both said that their companies would also be able to offer products that produce electricity at prices that matched fossil fuels.