The National Institute of Industrial Science and Technology in Japan has released a paper on the future of solar. The scientists believe the Himalayas has the world's greatest potential to create energy from the sun, by installing large solar arrays across the mountain sides. Other regions that are also noted include, the Andes in South America and Antarctica.

Something these areas all have in common are copious amounts of sunlight and cold temperatures – something that most would not necessarily expect of a good solar generation placement location. It has been proven though that some of the photovoltaic cell technologies operate with a greater efficiency at cooler temperatures.

The Himalayas is particularly attractive because the location is near to places such as China and India both locations with large future energy demands. There will be some huge challenges to overcome if this is something that goes ahead, for example building a maintaining an infrastructure that can transmit the energy produced to the cities that need it. Another concern is the placement of the panels and the maintenance of these in the snowy conditions.

This is an exciting discussion point for the solar industry as if large scale projects like the team in Japan are suggesting get the go ahead then it could have a dramatic impact in reducing the world's CO2 emissions. Solar Panels and other renewable energy technologies are the future for the energy market, so this is an interesting potential development for the industry.