'Silicon Valley' towards clean technology

"Silicon Valley" - a place where famous companies like HP, Intel, Apple . are aiming to be at the forefront of green, clean and environmentally friendly technologies.

Most businesses at "Silicon Valley" are deploying projects to produce solar, fuel cells and biofuels with a value of $ 55 billion currently, is larger than the entire advertising market by the Google company, also based here, controlled. Experts estimate that in the next 10 years, the market of clean energy supply products may increase 4 times now.

In 2006, for the first time in history, the amount of US ammonia used to produce solar panels was much higher than that used to manufacture electronic components. More importantly, now joint ventures have focused more on investing in environmentally friendly techniques.

Much of the experience of "Silicon Valley" companies in electronics manufacturing is being applied in clean energy technology, for example mass production, bringing production to the home.

Thanks to the mass production method, the cost of producing solar cells, after adjusting for inflation, fell from $ 21.83 in 1980 to $ 2.70 in 2005. According to experts, in the next 5 years, solar PV prices will be able to compete with regular electricity prices without any subsidies.

Market experts believe that investing in environmental protection products is an extremely important area, it can even create a bigger market than the "Valley's traditional business market." Silicon ''.

One factor that contributes to businesses expanding investment in clean technology is the fact that in the United States more than 10 states have enacted laws regulating the rate of electricity required to be extracted from renewable sources. The state of Caliphonia went even further with the passage of the greenhouse gas emission limit law in 2006. Many other states may also follow California in this regard, making the demand for energy more and more clean. become urgent.

Currently, in the United States, the cost gap between clean fuels and fossil fuels is gradually narrowed. If a clean energy producer can erase the gap, they will be able to compete in a huge energy market, because every year the US has to import tens of billions of dollars of petroleum. This potential market is attracting big partners like General Electric and Sharp. Last week, Citigroup announced it would invest $ 50 billion in clean technology, while British Petroleum is investing $ 400 million in research programs.

"Silicon Valley" is full of optimism. The investment capital of the joint venture in this industrial park has increased six-fold, to USD 300 million from the first quarter to the third quarter of 2006. A new breeze has also appeared on the stock market: since February 2007 until now, shares of 45 companies investing in the clean energy sector have increased by 12%, something that is hard to imagine. here 3 years.

However, some analysts also predict the limits of the potential of environmentally friendly techniques. They argue that while technology is developing and becoming an important factor, it will not replace a fossil-based production system. They also believe that clean engineering products, although promising, will not be able to overcome the biological or software engineering industry or the Internet or online search engines that are the strength of ' 'Silicon Valley''.