ROFLMAO... oil companies were suppressing alt energy? That makes no sense, alt energies were not economically viable, even with massive government subsidies. With silicon prices plummeting the cost of solar is becoming more competitive, but even so solar is a replacement for nat gas and coal electricity producers.... not oil.
Chevron tried to suppress the electric cell battery(watch the movie who killed the electric car) and Automatic Power tried to suppress the solar cell because it would interfere in their profits. That's capitalism for you. Anti-real progress. Just pro profits.
Automatic Power bought the designs and rights and tried to suppress it(Basically did nothing with it), because it would destroy their battery profits. Exxon then went to TIDELAND which introduced the solar powered buoy and markers.
Though most of Tideland's money was made by selling the solar cells to offshore oil platforms(basically the only people benefiting were the oil companies)!
Now the Chinese are taking over the market and its applications are growing. They can finally make real money off of it, making it in China for dirt cheap and selling it abroad for an affordable price.
I don't mind China having that market(so it is affordable to all people) but they have to give some stuff in return(Buy our exports)......
Here is more on the PVC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photo_voltaic_cell
Is this Exxon's baby? They have been keeping it under wraps for awhile!
Here I found this interesting. See how capitalism suppresses info to retain profits??
Navigation market
SPC approached companies making navigational buoys as a natural market for their products, but found a curious situation. The primary company in the business was Automatic Power, a battery manufacturer. Realizing that solar cells might eat into their battery profits, Automatic purchased the rights to earlier solar cell designs and suppressed them.[citation needed] Seeing there was no interest at Automatic, SPC turned to Tideland Signal, another battery company formed by ex-Automatic managers. Tideland introduced a solar-powered buoy and was soon ruining Automatic's business.
The timing could not be better; the rapid increase in the number of offshore oil platforms and loading facilities produced an enormous market among the oil companies. As Tideland's fortunes improved, Automatic started looking for their own supply of solar panels. They found Bill Yerks of Solar Power International (SPI) in California, who was looking for a market. SPI was soon bought out by one of its largest customers, the ARCO oil giant, forming ARCO Solar. ARCO Solar's factory in Camarillo, California was the first dedicated to building solar panels, and has been in continual operation from its purchase by ARCO in 1977 to this day.
This market, combined with the 1973 oil crisis, led to a curious situation. Oil companies were now cash-flush due to their huge profits during the crisis, but were also acutely aware that their future success would depend on some other form of power. Over the next few years, major oil companies started a number of solar firms, and were for decades the largest producers of solar panels. Exxon, ARCO, Shell, Amoco (later purchased by BP) and Mobil all had major solar divisions during the 1970s and 80s. Technology companies also had some investment, including General Electric, Motorola, IBM, Tyco and RCA.[9]
This is going to revolutionize solar energy! They even have a paint of this stuff. You paint your roof or car with it and your paint stores energy!
Also there are programs you can sign up to in Canada where if you go with this program and your producing more energy then you need, you can feed it back into the grid and make money!!!!That would heavily decentralize the energy market!!!!
