Alternative Energy Review
- EXCLUSIVE Report

In spite of several promises made by the US President George Bush to increase spending on research on alternative energy, no tangible effect seems to have taken shape anywhere. Moreover, the President’s proposed fiscal-year 2007 budget that would have hiked funding for renewable-energy resources that included solar and biomass as also for exploring into hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles, failed at the last moment. However, the congress had passed a stop-gap resolution to keep the budget at 2006 level that tantamount a cut in funding, when considered in the light of inflation reigning high in the country.

Some experts are warning that the cuts come just as much more money is needed to address energy-security concerns such as unstable oil prices and global warming. "We spent $9 billion last year on the strategic defense initiative R&D," says Joseph Romm, founder and director of the Center for Energy and Climate Solutions, who headed the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy under President Clinton. Romm says the budget "for all energy efficiency and all renewable energy is something like a billion. Given the scale of the problem with global warming and our oil imports is so humongous, we're hardly addressing the issue at all”.

However, some individual US states appear to understand the seriousness of the problem and have consequently taken steps to prevent a disaster in the not too distant future. Edward Rendell, governor of Pennsylvania has hinted about an international agreement between the US state and Germany’s principal industrial state to draw more foreign investment in the commonwealth’s energy sector.

German Consul General Hans-Jurgen Heimsoeth later met with Governor Rendell, arguing for a partnership based on alternative energy strategies and technologies. This had resulted in a visit by German officials to Philadelphia where they were taken around some of the Pennsylvania companies that were working on hydrogen fuel cell technologies. Retrospectively, some of Governor Rendell’s energy initiatives were presented at the WindEnergy 2006 conference in Hamburg, Germany.

We can thus say that there is a lot of activity in the field of alternative energy and it seems that solar power is leading the way. In fact, there has been no time in history when as many homes and commercial establishments have put up solar power systems. The reason behind this rise in popularity is many. The fact is, there are many advantages that include both ecological and financial – solar power can reduce the electricity bills to a great extent.