http://www.globaltimes.cn/www/english/sci-edu/world/2010-07/557562.htmlSource: Xinhua 17:11 July 29 2010
Though the Unites States comes only the fourth place as a solar energy market, behind Germany, Italy and Japan, its solar energy technology is farther advanced than any other country in the world, Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the US Solar Energy Industries Association, said.
Germany is a larger market than the United States and Japan has bent to the photovoltaic industry for decades. But it is the United States which holds the cutting edge, he said.
"When you look at the innovation that's coming out of our universities and our research laboratories as well as so many of the companies, I would actually argue that with respect to the actual technology, the efficiencies, the applications that solar is used and automatically the scale on which solar is applied, the US is significantly farther advanced than either Germany or Japan with respect to technology development," Resch told Xinhua.
Photovoltaics was invented in the United States' Bell Labs; the lowest cost panels are manufactured by a US company, First Solar; the highest efficient panels in the world are manufactured by a US company, Sun Power, Resch noted.