The Race Is On For New Solar Power Technology The world demands new solar power technology in order to slow the effects of deadly global warming. Not only are activists, the common people and scientists calling for it, so are investors and technology companies. New solar power technology is coming into our lives all of the time in bits and pieces, which all add up to help put us on the path to renewable energy sources. A Brief Look At The Past The human race grows, matures and changes priorities. When the priorities change, that's where the money, resources and idea makers go. Perhaps first these were fire makers. Then they were boat-builders and sailors, farmers and herders. In the Industrial Revolution, the priorities went to bringing mass manufacturing to the masses. In the last twenty years, the home computer industry has been the primary focus of the world's financial and scientific attention. In fact, with the help of computers, we might never have known about global warming until it was way too late. PC Parallels There are many things about the solar power industry that are paralleling the personal computer industry. The first computers filled entire office buildings and did little more than crunch numbers. But now you can get a tiny cell phone with a screen just a tad bigger than a gnat's behind which can pretty much run every aspect of your entire life. What made computers smaller yet more powerful? Silicon chips. The new solar power technology is also using silicon for solar power panels. The cells in the panels are usually crystalline silicon cells. They are gradually getting smaller and rapidly becoming cheaper. There are also new ways to store these solar power panels. Tiny rows of solar power cells can run a retail store's calculator for an entire work day. Solar power cells can be laid onto a rollable mat and rolled out only when you need it, then rolled up and stored away for when you don't. Both of these devices are not science fiction. They are commonly in use today. New solar power technology is being integrated into our lives and homes to keep us from total future shock. With each use of the new solar power technology, we are that much closer to keeping this planet from going belly up. As more and more consumers demand renewable energy, there should be dizzying advances in the new solar power technology as there has been for personal computers.