“The amount of solar energy that strikes the earth every hour is roughly equivalent to the total amount of energy that human society uses in an entire year.”  
                           ~Sam Newman (Senior Consultant, Electricity Practice, Rocky Mountain Institute).
 
In this short video, Sam Newman discusses RMI’s efforts to bring down the costs of solar powered electricity infrastructure. 
 
At present, less than 0.1% of total electricity supply in the United States comes from solar power. Solar power is still an expensive resource, even though the solar panel (module) manufacturing market is very competitive.
 
RMI is focused on reducing non-module costs of the solar power industry (civil, mounting, electrical, interconnection, pre-install process, operations and maintenance).  Non-module costs account for about half the cost of solar power systems).  Non-module costs are very fragmented; a diverse network that makes it difficult to bring down costs.  RMI is focused on working with partners and collaborators to improve potential and turn reduced costs into reality.
 
For more information about the Rocky Mountain Institute (Denver, Colorado):
http://www.rmi.org/