Solar power is on the way to being competitive with all comers.

So say executives at the fast-expanding SolarWorld manufacturing complex in a western suburb of Portland, Oregon.

The facility is one of few in the world that will produce everything from crystals made from melted polysilicon rock to wafers to cells and ultimately - starting late this year -final modules ready to be hauled on to rooftops and plugged in to our energy appetite. I toured it earlier today.

That full range of product cycle will enable SolarWorld to constantly innovate production processes to relentless cut costs.

As Gordon Brinser, vice president of operations at the Oregon plant, puts it, "We are committed to have year after year price reductions." Overseeing the entire supply chain, he said, can only "speed up the rate of innovation and change."

Wholesale prices have lately plunged 30 to 50 percent, in part because of the fall off in demand for product in a recession, and in part because of a surge of production in Asia. When - and if - the price of carbon gets factored into the power bill associated with generating electricity at coal-fired and even natural gas-fired generation plants, solar will become ever more competitive. Already, with subsidies, solar power in regions of the country with high power rates is competitive with other generation.

We will be reporting more about the SolarWorld story and the growing appeal of solar to electric power utilities in special reports coming in future issues of EnergyBiz magazine. And the role of renewable energy in our power universe will be one of the hot topics to be aired in a few weeks at the EnergyBiz Leadership Forum in Washington. Keep reading and, if you can, join us at the forum.

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