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China has long been the world's supplier of low-cost solar panels, and now it's a major market for them, too. According to research firm NPD's SolarBuzz report, in the last quarter of 2012 China bought up 33 percent of the world's solar panel supply.
In contrast, two years prior China accounted for less than 10 percent of the world's solar panel sales.
1. Cost - the single largest hurdle solar energy faces is that competing energy sources have always been cheaper in terms of dollars per kilowatt-hour (a standard measure). Compared to electricity from coal-fired power plants, solar is more expensive - if you don't consider the environmental costs (which typically are hard to asses a dollar amount to).
But in recent years…
When the Oracle of Omaha makes an investment, others follow. Even if it's in a sector that's been hammered in recent months: solar. This week Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company acquired two massive solar panel plants -- which together represent some of the largest solar assets in the world -- from SunPower. The Antelope Valley Solar Projects, to be built in Southern California, are worth some $2 billion to $2.5 billion collectively.
