The Non-Dollar Report View in browser Tuesday, September 8, 2015 It was NEVER supposed to be there... They gave up hope here in the 1970s... But an innovative new company just reopened the case. And would you believe it? What it found will blow you away. The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades by Sean Brodrick Here comes the sun!... for consumers as well as investors. The solar power industry has had its ups and downs during the past few years, but it seems to have turned a corner. Indeed, you could say that solar is seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I'll give you three reasons why. No. 1: Large-Scale Solar Power Generation Is Surging In June, United States solar facilities smashed the record for power generation. Utility-scale solar power plants - those with a capacity of 1 megawatt or more - produced 2,765 gigawatt-hours of electricity. And more and more utility-scale plants are being built. Last month, the federal government approved a 485-megawatt solar plant to be built in the California desert. That will generate enough power for 180,000 homes. And no wonder utilities are switching to solar. The cost of solar panels has dropped from $150 per watt in 1970 to $0.60 per watt today. There are multiple reasons why the cost of solar is plunging. Let's look at one of them, which is also another reason why solar is turning the corner. No. 2: Commodity Prices Are Plunging As The Oxford Club's Resource Strategist, don't I know it! But that's good news for solar, because the industrial commodities used to make solar panels, including silver, copper and polysilicon, are falling in price. The price of an ounce of silver has tumbled about 70% during the last four years. Similarly, the copper price has been sliced in half. But these price declines are nothing compared to what has happened to the price of polysilicon. Its price has utterly collapsed from $475 per kilogram in 2008 to less than $16 today! And polysilicon could get cheaper. Seventy thousand metric tons of annual polysilicon production capacity is coming online this year. Another 61,000 metric tons will come online next year. These plunging commodity prices are great news for the solar power industry. We could see much cheaper prices for solar panels, wider profit margins for manufacturers, or both! No. 3: The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades You know about solar roofs - get ready for solar windows. Researchers at Michigan State University have developed a new type of transparent luminescent solar concentrator (TLSC) that creates solar energy when it is placed over a window. This technology is being commercialized by Oxford Photovoltaics. The company plans to produce colored and semi-transparent glass that works as a solar cell. Another company, Solaria Energía from Spain, slices existing photovoltaic cells into strips and then sandwiches them between glass layers. As the PV strips absorb the light striking a window, heat is turned into electricity rather than passing into the building. This lowers air conditioning costs. Finally, SolarWindow Technologies uses a transparent voltaic cell that can be placed in new construction or retrofitted to existing windows. But one of the biggest changes will be in battery technology. That is, storage of solar power. Tesla Energy is building a massive production plant in Nevada to build lithium-ion storage batteries for use in private homes, businesses, even factories. The company has taken enough reservations on its batteries to sell out through the middle of 2016. Check Out Your Solar Options If you're thinking of installing solar panels on your own home, you might want to check out Google's Project Sunroof. Google's newest project uses Google Maps to calculate the size of the solar panels you would need to install to cover up to 100% of your energy usage, along with the money you'd save under different financing options. Project Sunroof doesn't cover the entire country yet, but you can put your name on an email list to get updates. The Easiest Way to Invest in Solar Outside of installing solar panels on your home, the easiest way to invest in solar is through the Guggenheim Solar ETF (NYSE: TAN). It holds a basket of big solar names including First Solar (NYSE: FSLR), SolarCity Corp. (Nasdaq: SCTY) and SunPower Corp. (Nasdaq: SPWR). The fund fell hard in recent months - due both to weakness in the energy sector and weakness in the overall stock market. But now the Solar ETF seems to be putting in a bottom. Even better, it sports a 2.2% dividend yield. So, you're paid to wait. All the best, Sean Brodrick For The Non-Dollar Report Will Democrats lose the White House because of this video? By Paul Amos Associate Director, Health Sciences Institute Could Obama's latest disaster destroy the presidential hopes of every Democratic candidate? Why? Because an online video has revealed the biggest government scandal in American history. In fact, at this very moment, over 45 million U.S. lives are being put at risk (including your own) and Obama's fingerprints are all over the crime scene. I urge you to click here to watch this video now, before the powers that be have it taken down. Click here to comment RECENT ARTICLES THE BULL MARKET MAY ALREADY HAVE ENDED by Bill Bonner September 5, 2015 With the Fed now running out of ammo, we may no longer be in a bull market. Instead, we may be entering a bear market. If so, you can forget about a recovery in four months. Read On... THE BEST WAY TO BUY COMMODITY STOCKS RIGHT NOW by Alexander Green September 3, 2015 Commodities like oil, gold and copper are all in the dumper. Is it time to put on your contrarian hat and buy? Read On... KEEPING UP WITH THE DRONES-ES by Sean Brodrick September 1, 2015 One of the biggest innovations of the 21st century is drones. Here's how to profit from this global trend. Read On... You are receiving this email because you subscribed to The Non-Dollar Report. To unsubscribe from The Non-Dollar Report or to manage your account, click here. To cancel by mail or for any other subscription issues, write us at: The Non-Dollar Report Attn: Member Services 14 West Mount Vernon Place Baltimore, MD 21201 © 2015 Beyond the Dollar LLC All Rights Reserved 14 West Mount Vernon Place | Baltimore, MD 21201 North America: 1 877 880 9290; Fax: 1 410 329 1923 International: +1 443 353 4461; Fax: +1 410 329 1923 Question? Comment? Contact us here. Beyond the Dollar is a financial publisher that does not offer any personal financial advice or advocate the purchase or sale of any security or investment for any specific individual. 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