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The sales of solar power panel were 5.6GW in 2008, which is up 48 percent. In 2008 3.3GW or 60% solar panel sales was produced in Asia. And about 1.5GW solar energy panel sales was produced in Europe. Only 750MW solar power panel sales was produced in the United States.

 

The downturn of alternative energy (green energy, renewable power) happened in 2009, and the manufacturing capacity utilisation was below 50%, which is similar to the semiconductor-for-IT industry. But in 2010 the solar panel market is picking up again

There's one revolutionary advancement for the development of solar energy. Caltech (California Institute of Technology) researchers claim they have developed a solar cell that is twice as efficient as conventional solar wafers and that could be much cheaper to make.

Using silicon-wire arrays, Caltech researchers claim they can trap up to 96 percent of incident sunlight at a single wavelength and up to 85 per cent of the collectible sunlight, then convert between 90 and 100 percent of it into electrons, aka electricity, surpassing previous optical microstructures developed to trap light. As we know conventional photovoltaic (PV) cells convert about 40% of the sunlight they absorb into electricity.

Solar energy is a kind of cheap energy source for Africa, clean, green, free, without pollution or damage to the environment.

Electrifying the rural areas poses great challenges for African governments. Remote and scattered, rural homes, which are unlike homes in the urban areas, are costly and often impractical to connect to the main electricity grid. But stand-alone sources of power, such as solar energy, wind energy and power from mini-hydro generators, can help to fill the gap of remote and scattered, rural homes. In Africa solar power, which is clean and renewable, fits the demands.

The sun is free and inexhaustible.