Solar power technologies could generate 15 percent of America’s power
in 10 years, but only if Washington levels the playing field on
subsidies, a report by the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) says.

That means either rolling back fossil fuel subsidies, as President Obama proposed earlier this year, or increasing subsidies for clean energy, the association says.

Fossil fuels received $72 billion in total federal subsidies from 2002 to 2008, keeping prices artificially low, according to figures
from the Environmental Law Institute (ELI). About 98 percent of that
went to conventional energy sources, namely coal and oil, leading to
more emissions. The rest, $2.3 billion, was pumped into a new
technology to trap and store carbon dioxide spewed by coal plants.

During that same period, solar got less than $1 billion, according
to the SEIA, a trade group representing 1,100 solar companies across
the nation.

To compete and gain market share — and stop global warming — this
inconsistency “must reverse itself immediately,” said Rhone Resch, SEIA
president and CEO.

There had been hints of this happening.

In September, the G20 group of the largest 20 economies agreed to
phase out the $300 billion spent worldwide in fossil fuel subsidies
“over the medium term” to combat climate change.

But neither the Obama administration nor Congress has yet to take steps to comply with the G20 commitment.

For solar to have a shot, the world cannot wait, Resch told reporters at the Copenhagen climate talks this month.