At Gaia Worldwide our mission is very clear, and is the single driver behind all of our business decisions, customer engagements, and communication strategy.
To make the United States the Number One solar market in the world by 2014.
Will it be easy to achieve this? Probably not, but that’s what makes the goal worth achieving. We are focused on solving big problems, and correcting the imbalances that define the United States as a renewable energy market.
Perhaps you’ve heard that the United States consumes almost 25% of the worlds energy. On many levels this is a positive metric, we use as much energy as we do in order to support our role as the world’s largest economy. While we can always do more to improve efficiency and conserve, the sheer magnitude of our energy demand creates an extraordinary business and economic opportunity, the likes of which we haven’t seen since the emergence of the personal computer.
What we have is an imbalance.
If we were to strip away all the variables that exist from one country to another, it would be logical to say that the country that is using 25% of the earths energy should also be producing 25% of it’s renewable energy… Going one step further, our solar production should also be 25% of the world’s total.
Now let’s add back in some of those variables we stripped out…
Only 10 years ago, the United States was indeed the #1 solar power producer. As of 2009, we had fallen to #4… Now, in mid 2010, we sit at a mind boggling #6 in the world. Remember, only 10 years ago we were the global leader.
So who has eclipsed the United States?
Troubling question indeed. The list includes countries with economies that are almost insignificant in comparison to that of the United States. While Germany and Spain sit at #1 and #2 respectively, the leaderboard also includes Italy, and yes… China.
The United States has been the dominant contributor to R&D in solar technology since the very beginning, and we remain the #1 investor in new technology today – several times the size of the next highest country. Yet, we continue to slide down the rankings in deployment with each passing year, and as it seems today, possibly each passing quarter.
The Cost of Our Decline:
As I write this in August 2010, we are facing one of the most difficult economic times in our history. Our core base of manufacturing jobs is dissolving, putting good families out of their homes. The same is happening to our professional services and tradespeople. There’s no work for them. Therefore there’s no money to pay the bills, and what were once close-knit, functional families are falling victim to the pressure. More and more heads of families are giving up, demoralized by the inability to provide for their families. Domestic incidents and violence are becoming everyday stories on the news, alcohol and drug abuse are rising to levels not seen in decades, children are running away from home and living dangerous lifestyles rather than have to face the consequences of seeing the life they once had continue to deteriorate.
This is not the America that we are capable of being.
We all share the burden of keeping our people whole during this time and finding a way to be great again. Of course, the means by which we accomplish this are the cause for even more division among Americans. While more and more people do nothing while dreaming of a way to make things like they used to be, and the politicians continue to debate a never ending stream of proposed solutions, the problem becomes worse. Costing us more and making it that much order to get back on track.
The Time For Looking Back Is Over.
Like it or not, we’ve passed the point of no-return. We need a breakthrough that will launch an entire new generation of industry, creating jobs that pay well, add value, and open the door to even more new industries, the likes of which haven’t even been thought of yet.
Remember when the Japanese were going to take over the world because they could produce higher quality products for prices we couldn’t touch? Even if you don’t, you can imagine the pressure felt by Americans who were accustomed to being the dominant player in every industry that mattered at the time.
Innovation Brought Us Back.
As it turned out, the Japanese weren’t counting on the personal computer coming into everyone’s lives. This made us more productive. The PC provided a platform for what would become the internet… Also invented by American Visionaries, and controlled by the United States. The result was the biggest economic boom that I’ve ever seen, and possibly that this country has ever seen.
Energy is the next paradigm.
As it always has been, America owns the key to the future of energy, and this will serve as the platform for new industry and prosperity like we’ve never imagined. Solar is the anchoring technology here, as the microchip was for the computer revolution. We already have it, yet we continue to hand it off to other countries who seem to have learned better than we have how important it is to lead in the global innovation economy. While we debate and make excuses, other countries are deploying. So we continue to slide toward irrelevance.
This is Why Gaia Worldwide Exists.
Please review the rest of this website to learn more about what we can do to make you a part of our resurgence. Stop listening to the politicians who would have you believe that the solar industry is a topic for debate, or the nay-sayers who still insist that solar is not viable based on what they may have heard a decade ago.
What’s more… Stop listening to the solar industry advocates.
Yes, you read it right. Stop listening to them. By and large this industry is still controlled by the same people who ran it when it was nothing more than a cottage industry built for counter-culturalists and idealists. Solar is now a $60 Billion industry, and remains up for grabs by anyone with the vision and business sense to bring it into the mainstream.
If this is you, you need to call us.
Joe Boyce, President – Gaia Worldwide