U.S. Department of Energy - Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

Solar Energy Technologies Program

Solar History Timeline: The Future

Photo of a home, built by students from the University of Colorado (CU) for the first Solar Decathlon.

This home, built by students from the University of Colorado (CU) for the first Solar Decathlon, could be a model for energy-efficient solar homes of the future. In the Solar Decathlon, a competition sponsored by the Department of Energy, student teams are challenged to integrate aesthetics and modern conveniences with maximum energy production and optimal efficiency. Each collegiate team builds a uniquely designed 500- to 800-square-foot house. In 2002, all the houses were transported to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., where the CU team took first prize overall.

Photo of state-of-the-art hydrogen fuel cell buses.

SunLine, a California transit agency, is adding state-of-the-art hydrogen fuel cell buses to its fleets and setting up facilities for fueling and maintenance. Hydrogen is produced at the site using solar-powered electrolysis and natural gas reforming. Because fuel cell buses aren't yet commercially available, demonstration projects help us understand the technology better and plan for the future.

Here's a look at some things we can expect in the future from solar technologies.

All our buildings will feature energy-efficient design, construction, and materials as well as renewable energy technologies. In effect, each building will both conserve energy and produce its own supply, to be one of a new generation of cost-effective "zero-energy buildings" that have no net annual need for nonrenewable energy.

In photovoltaic research and development, there will be more breakthroughs in new materials, cell designs, and novel approaches to product development. In a solar future, your mode of transportation—and even the clothes you wear—could produce clean, safe electric power.

With today's technology roadmaps to lead the way, concentrating solar power will be fully competitive with conventional power-generating technologies within a decade. Concentrating solar power, or solar thermal electricity, could harness enough of the sun's energy to provide large-scale, domestically secure, and environmentally friendly electricity, especially in the southwestern United States.

The enormous solar power potential of the Southwest—comparable in scale to the huge hydropower resource of the Northwest—will be realized. A desert area 10 miles by 15 miles could provide 20,000 megawatts of power, and the electricity needs of the entire United States could theoretically be met by a photovoltaic array within an area 100 miles on a side.

Within 10 years, photovoltaic power will be competitive in price with traditional sources of electricity.

Solar electricity will be used in an electrolysis process that separates the hydrogen and oxygen in water so the hydrogen can be used in fuel cells for transportation and in buildings.

Photo of the world's largest solar power facility in California.
The world's largest solar power facility — near Kramer Junction, California—consists of five solar electric generating stations with a combined capacity of 150 megawatts. At capacity, this is usually enough power for about 150,000 homes. The facility covers more than 1000 acres and has a collector surface area of more than a million square meters.