Green energy

Rare is the good news story on the environment; rarer still does it come from the private sector. So today8217;s report in the Guardian of a possible breakthrough in solar power is to be celebrated. If all comes good, it will mean photovoltaic PV cells can be produced nearly as easily and quickly as on a printing press 8211; and rather than being confined to the roofs of smart homes, PV cells could eventually be put on a variety of small surfaces. Suddenly the optimism of solar electricity becoming as cheap as coal power looks plausible. Behind this innovation stand some of the leading names in Silicon Valley, including the founders of Google; a place that helped downsize the mainframe computer to something that can be carried in a pocket might do the same for solar power.

It is early days, of course, and all this raises more questions than a quiz show. The technology might not be as efficient as claimed, or as reliable as hoped. But this offers a vision of one kind of green revolution: where companies really do invest heavily in researching and commercialising more environmentally friendly technologies, which rival the old, dirty ones on the sticking points of cost and convenience. If solar becomes as cheap as King Coal, and power plants can be set up in a 10th of the time it takes to put up a nuclear station 8212; then it is difficult for even the most hard-headed and tin-eared to argue against it.

To get there, however, will require a lot more government support. Nanosolar, the company making today8217;s announcement, had among its financiers the US government. That8217;s right: Kyoto-busting President Bush is funding this green innovation8230;