In 1993, President Clinton pledged to reduce US C02 emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000. Instead, the nation's C02 emissions are now projected to rise at least 13 percent by the end of the century. Solar cells are an astonishingly attractive way to make electricity. They consume no fuel, produce no pollution or radioactive waste, have long lifetimes, contain no moving parts, require little maintenance and can be fashioned from silicon - the second most abundant element on Earth.
Solar cells produce no greenhouse-warming carbon dioxide.
Unfortunately, solar cells are not yet cost-effective for widespread use in the US or any other industrialized country. Massive government purchases by the Defense Department and NASA quickly led to design innovations and efficient mass production. As prices fell, a large commercial market was created. Today, millions of people have more computational power sitting on their desks than NASA had available for the entire Apollo space program in the 1960s. Recent history confirms that every time the volume of solar cells has increased, the cost has fallen.