The leader in solar by far, in terms of capacity is Sharp. So when their leader speaks, people listen.
According to him, solar will be competitive with nuclear by 2030 and fossil fuels will be out of the running. I think that’s a very very very bold prediction. He even anticipates that solar’s cost will be halved within the next 3.5 years (2010). I believe these are very aggressive targets, yet not atypical of Japanese industry leaders trying to push envelopes and drive their team towards goals that may be unrealistic yet still within the scope of possibility.
The article I quote just appeared as the industry heads to the largest solar conference in Europe in Dresden, Germany next week. We’ll see if the industry consensus is that he is right or not.
Sass