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SolarReserve CEO on Future of Solar Energy

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  • Description

    SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith weighs in on solar energy industry.

  • Duration 3:04
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So on to Saudi Arabia the world's largest oil supplier announcing a more than 100 billion dollar plan to create.

-- solar industry that could generate possibly 13 of the nation's electricity by 2032.

Solar reserve has a stake in this and the CEO of that company Kevin Smith.

Is back with us now and what can we should point out that.

You don't make the photovoltaic.

Cells that you are in the business of actually setting up power plants that are driven by solar but.

Why Saudi Arabia be doing this now well I.

I think that the price of solos come down fairly dramatically in the last several years we actually have a technology not PV panels with technology that can provide solar energy twenty per hour today.

-- what's interesting is the size of the program I mean they're they're they're burning oil for a lot of electricity generation that's pretty expensive that a hundred dollars a barrel.

You know they're looking at a forty gig a -- program we have about four gave the watts in installed in the US.

Saudi Arabia's about a tenth of the size -- that means they're they're -- a problem is about a hundred times the size that we're looking at in the US.

About the cost of a solar generated electricity today verses whether it's a natural gas -- -- like how price come having how.

Price comparative as it theory.

I mean right now solar so whether it's PV or solar thermal which is our technology -- we do do both.

Both types of projects that we have been active in Saudi for the last over eighteen months.

But right now we know it's it's far more competitive -- the new build nuclear or new build what what what I -- -- cleaner coal.

Natural gas prices are pretty low right now I'm -- we're pretty competitive and natural gas prices even where they are now but your natural gas prices -- is a pretty volatile fuel so.

It goes up it goes down you know -- built up a natural gas project five -- six years ago -- natural gas prices were fourteen dollars about.

Five or six times what they are now so it's a pretty volatile fuel so we gotta watch out for that.

In in many businesses when when you talk about other countries overseas and you talk about the government putting money -- money behind say.

-- renewable energy projects are new energy projects.

And then they look back at the United States in the -- disaster I want to -- to give you retain be taken government lines at all our government backed lines from the federal government and do you worry.

That -- -- the US pulls away from a lot of these emerging technologies because of the slender problem.

Well we we are in in the Department of Energy loan guarantee program for our and the data project was 960 million dollar project.

And we we close that loan in September of 2011 in that project is now under construction and and I'm going wow.

And I think it's important to point out that those those are loans as opposed to grants -- -- will will pay about 300 million dollars of interest in addition to paying back the loan over the the period and yet we are concerned that that with wranglings in congress in.

And and that concerns about.

Budgets and things like that that that the support for -- Noble Energy is waning a -- in the US.

Just as it's starting to pick up pretty massively in the rest of the world.

It was great -- can't thank you very much to talk about this at greater -- straight feature please come back Henis and I don't.

Salaries are.

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