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b'Sun Up Dan Shugar, CEO, Solaria Tom Dinwoodie, CTO, SunPower In the wake of the collapse of solar panel maker Solyndra, the solar industry has received front-page treatment for the first time. Unfortunately, most of the coverage has been negative and ill-informed. In danger of being lost, industry veterans Dan Shugar and Tom Dinwoodie tell this Climate One audience is the good news \\u2013 that solar is one of the fastest-growing industries in the United States. Dan Shugar, CEO, Solaria, offers a sense of the scale of the growth. \\u201cSolar is, for the last 10 years, the fastest-growing energy technology,\\u201d he says, recording 69% annually compounded growth, 10 years in a row. \\u201cLast year, our industry manufactured, shipped, and installed for homes, businesses, and power plants 17 gigawatts of power. That\\u2019s the daytime equivalent of what 17 nuclear power plants put out,\\u201d he says. Tom Dinwoodie, CTO, SunPower, adds that even assuming a slower annual growth rate, say 15%, solar could supply 100% of the United States\\u2019 electricity requirement by 2040. \\u201cIn the last three years, if you just look at North America, there\\u2019s been three times more wind and solar installations, in megawatts installed, than coal,\\u201d says Dan Shugar. Dinwoodie and Shugar also address two recent events that have buffeted the industry \\u2013 German firm SolarWorld\\u2019s WTO complaint alleging that Chinese state support has facilitated the flooding of the market with low-cost panels, and the bankruptcy of Solyndra. Yes, the SolarWorld dumping complaint has divided the industry, says Dinwoodie. But \\u201cyou\\u2019ll see demand in the world pick up as a result of these low costs, and there will be more a supply-demand balance in the future.\\u201d Overlooked in media coverage of the issue, Dan Shugar adds, is that China maintains a 17% import duty on foreign panels. \\u201cWe think having a conversation and trying to level the playing field would be the right way to go about equalizing that,\\u201d he says. On Solyndra, Dinwoodie says the firm \\u201cis basically a victim of the success of the solar industry.\\u201d Remember, adds Dan Shugar, that Solyndra\\u2019s loan guarantee, even at $535 million, represented just 2% of the Department of Energy loan guarantee portfolio. The real issue, he argues, is that \\u201cin a capital-starved economy, which is what we are now, it\\u2019s very difficult to get loans for proven manufacturing entities.\\u201d This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club of California on November 17, 2011\\nLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices'