German Expert Predicts US Solar Energy Boom

There's something incongruous about experts from normally cloudy Germany coming to California, the land of eternal sunshine, to teach the locals about how to harness solar power.

A German energy expert has predicted that the US is on the verge of seeing a solar energy surge in the country.

In San Francisco this week, the organizers of the world's largest solar exhibition, Germany's Intersolar, launched an American version of their conference amid predictions of a massive solar boom in the ailing US economy.

According to Deutche Welle, the conference chairman Professor Eicke Weber, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, said it makes perfect sense for Germans to bring their solar accumen to the California.

As soaring fuel costs combine with rapidly changing public perceptions about the dangers of climate change, the US embrace of solar power is at a tipping point, he predicts.

Soon, the US will follow the massive investments already made in Europe in renewable energy, where thanks to strong government support the solar industry is years ahead of its American counterpart.

"Before, our only argument was the environment, but now with oil at $140 (88 euros) a barrel, I think the much stronger argument will be the pocketbook," he told Deutche Welle.

"That's why I think solar energy will have a great future in the United States."

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