If There Is a Technology That Has Lain Dormant Too Long, It is Solar Power

Cool ideas are one thing, but for true innovations in technology, the ones that rapidly spread and find near immediate adoption, there generally needs to be a “tipping point” reached by advances in a host of supportive technologies before ignition really takes place. There are ample stories in books and the press about connections and inter-dependencies that have come together to produce everything from radios to lasers to even the latest craze for computerized tablets. For the solar power industry, the tipping point for its breakout has suffered from constant delays along the way.

Yes, solar has come a long way, and yes, many investors have profited handsomely over the past few years if they got in on the ground floor. Lately, however, the industry has been in the doldrums, and future prospects do not look good since the largest market for the products happens to be Europe, a stagnating region already cutting back on imports. Innovation can spark growth under even the worst of circumstances, however, and one “old” idea seems to have caught fire if you wish to believe recent press releases about it.

At a recent electronics trade show in Japan, 3M presented its apparent breakthrough in solar window films. Costing 50 to 70% less than current fully installed solar panels, the innovation is seen as a financial boon for homes, buildings, and even cars, for that matter. Energy is the planet’s “Mother” of all markets, topping $6 trillion on a worldwide basis. Solar has struggled to make inroads, but innovations in storage batteries and connecting to local utility grids have held it back, while the efficiency of the cells themselves has always been suspect.

3M is not touting great advances in efficiency, and it expects to release something new in the battery arena next year. For now, a 3 to 8% efficiency rating is the output, but 3M asserts that, “A square meter under full sun can generate enough power to recharge a smart-phone.” The window films, however, will also help cool offices or homes, adding further to their appeal.

The elders among us may recall high school science projects in the seventies touting the stellar future for solar energy, but we can also remember another industry that took off when all the “stars” lined up in the eighties. Many aspiring entrepreneurs got their business plans together, ran out to get a small business loan, and made millions. The location was Florida. Illicit drugs were flowing through the state, causing a crime wave that swept through the region and beyond. Security and alarm systems were in big demand, and installations spread as quickly as you could splice two wires together.

3M may not have the perfect answer, but a small firm outside of Washington, DC, recently demonstrated before physicists, academics, and the press that its product leapfrogs the “titans” at 3M, both in efficiency and installation costs. It’s time to get a small business loan.