Thoughts on Solar by Run on Sun's Founder & CEO, Jim Jenal

Yesterday we wrote about articles questioning the benefits of solar power to utility rate payers. But another story should provide some context - Coal is set to become the dominant global energy source by 2022, with serious repercussions for all life on Earth.

Writing over at the Greener Ideal blog about a recent report from the International Energy Agency (IEA), th post -  The Future of Coal. by Susmita Baral - is full of sobering facts about the increasing use of coal throughout the world, particularly in China and India.  If changes are not made, coal will equal oil as a global energy source by 2017.  By 2014, according to the blog post, China will account for half of the world’s coal consumption and India will consume more coal than the U.S.  Indeed, the U.S. is the only part of the world forecast to actually reduce its consumption of coal over the next decade, driven largely by the availability of cheap - sometimes fracked - natural gas.

This coal consumption comes with a terrible price in terms of CO2 emissions and subsequent climate change.  One possible solution - introducing a price on carbon emissions like the cap and trade program that California has now implemented with the first auction of carbon credits taking place last November.