Nanosolar Chooses German Town for Solar Plant

It’s interesting to think about the number of jobs created in Germany as a result of their favorable renewable energy incentives. I think Merkel had it pegged at around 350,00 across the supply chain in the last couple of years - counting construction, engineering, processing, installation, sales, etc. When’s the last time an American sector added 350,00 jobs over such a short time frame? Possibly in the 1940s?

We’ve got elections coming up in about 11 months, and none of the candidates are really talking about these ‘green collar’ jobs, which is disappointing since job creation ought to be a bread and butter issue. There’s so much shortsightedness in terms of supporting a renewable energy industry in the U.S. I believe that if the job creation element of it were well publicized, the voting public might force it to become a larger campaign issue.

I couldn’t agree more.  It’s so sad that the US president has managed to completely obscure this issue, either out of ignorance or to benefit his buddies at Exxon.  Everyone stuck slaving away in a dark coal mine risking black lung, emphysema and asphyxiation could be working installing solar panels on every house and building in america, or retrofitting buildings for greater energy efficiency, or building/installing wind turbines, digging geothermal wells, etc.  There is just no evidence whatsoever that renewable energy would be bad economically—in fact the opposite is true. 
In late 2008 we’ll have Nanosolar ready to sell in the US (their first 100,000 panels are pre-sold overseas) and Heliovolt’s factory ready as well with a little luck.  That, combined with a new president, will hopefully jumpstart the revolution that should have happened years ago.