This year, General Electric Co. will spend $600 million to develop the largest solar panel factory in the U.S. The plant will eventually produce enough panels on an annual basis to generate 400 megawatts of power, or enough to light up 80,000 homes. The size of more than 11 football fields, the panel factory, based in Aurora, Colo, will help the industrial conglomerate meet the increasing customer demand for affordable, renewable energy, and its construction says something: This whole idea of renewable energy entering the mainstream? It's a lot closer to reality than you probably realize. Solar power is not a new technology, and as the field has matured it has become more efficient and accessible, prompting companies to view clean energy not only as a sustainability solution, but as an asset to the bottom line, as well. "Nobody expected [solar] to be so cheap or so big," says Jenny Chase, lead solar analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF), a provider of information to investors in the renewable energy space. Chase adds that since margin compression has undercut existing companies, prices have dropped to only a quarter of what they were in 2008. "Many people were waiting for a technological breakthrough [to reduce costs], which turned out not to be necessary," she says. Solar unit costs are expected to decrease by 60 percent in the next 20 years.
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