CAGD Celebrates Earth Day

As this year’s Earth Day celebration approaches (mark your calendars for this Friday, April 22nd), we’d like to reflect on the truly beneficial aspects of what we do as a solar company.  Each day, we enable people living in our communities to take advantage of solar energy and in so doing, we help improve the world we live in. The sun is a truly amazing resource – it sustains life on our planet by keeping temperatures moderate, it gives light, allows crops and plants to grow and among other things, its energy can be converted to electricity which has powered the improvement in the standard of living since Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light bulb.

As a company which specializes in helping people take advantage of solar photovoltaic energy, we get excited about Earth Day. On April 21st, we’ll be at the Earth Day Celebration at the prestigious Fox Plaza building. Located at 2121 Avenue of the Stars in Century City the event will be a great opportunity to meet and talk to people about green issues.

Just last month, an inspirational article written by prominent technology author and entrepreneur Ramez Naam in Scientific American magazine again highlights the really important benefits of solar energy, which is becoming ever more affordable and competitive with conventional fossil fuel energy sources. The Article can be seen at http://http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=smaller-cheaper-faster-does-moores-2011-03-15

To quote Ramez “If humanity could capture one tenth of one percent of the solar energy striking the earth – one part in one thousand – we would have access to six times as much energy as we consume in all forms today, with almost no greenhouse gas emissions.”

In the article, with data provided by the Department of Energy’s  National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the author goes on to explain that the trend of falling PV module costs has followed an exponential pattern over the past 30 years. The trend follows the famous “Moore’s law” trend seen in computer chip technology, only instead of doubling capacity every 18 months, “Solar Module Moore’s Law” explains the roughly 7% price drop of modules each year.

The author goes on to explain that since retail electricity prices are currently rising by a few percent each year, by 2018, the cost of solar electricity in the average location in the U.S. will cost the same as electricity produced from coal. By 2030, the author says, solar electricity is likely to cost half the cost of coal electricity. A typical solar module with a 20 year life span is estimated to produce about 7-10 times more energy than that which is required to manufacture it and solar technology represents a green power source with virtually no carbon emissions.

That’s good news for the world.

Happy Earth Day From All of Us at CAGD!

Earth Heart

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtfully committed citizens can change the world. 
Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” 
Margaret Mead