Solar Foil - The Future of Solar Energy

Anil Sethi, chief executive of the Swiss company Flison, holds a dark polymer foil. A paper-thin foil 200 times lighter than glass solar material. So light, it can be stuck to the sides of a building. So light, it can be mass-produced in rolls like packaging material.

This is solar film. This new invention idea is made from a semiconductor compound that is embedded into polymer foil. A compound that absorbs light by freeing electrons, which can generate electricity for heating, lighting and air-conditioning.

Just a small piece can power a mobile phone or laptop.

It will even work on a grey, cloudy day and it should be commercially available by 2010.

"We don't need subsidies, we just need governments to get out of the way and do no harm. They've spent $170 billion subsidizing nuclear power over the last thirty years," says Sethi.

The solar industry is expected to surpass wind power.

According to Michael Rogol, a solar expert with Credit Lyonnais, the industry will grow to $40 billion by 2010, especially in Japan and Germany where green energy laws have forced utitilies to purchase surplus electricity from households.

Solar foil technology is accelerating so fast that the cost for electricity per watt could be 70 cents within a few years and around 30 cents within a decade.

"This is a very powerful technology," says Mike Splinter, chief executive of the U.S. based semiconductor company Appied Materials.

Populations across Asia and Africa that do not have networks of electrical grids, could jump into the solar age with this technology, similar to how they jumped into wireless phones.

Electrical utilities in Japan and Germany have already seen diminishing profits.

But Jeroen Van de Veer, chief executive at Shell Oil assures us that oil will be around for awhile, "We have invested a bit in all forms of renewable energy ourselves and maybe we'll find a winner one day. But the reality is that in twenty years time we'll still be using more oil than now."