The final mission statement of the Executive Conference Strategic Photovoltaic Business Opportunities for Utilities, Sun Valley, Idaho.

We are representatives of electric power companies, governments, NGOs and solar photovoltaic manufacturers from around the world, who gathered at Sun Valley, Idaho, September 17-20, 1995.

We have agreed that solar electricity - photovoltaic technology - is on its way to becoming a vitally important part of the world's energy supplies. The costs of this technology now make it practical for installation in many applications worldwide - and the future will only accelerate this trend as costs fall further. But we wish to stress that further cost improvements are not necessary in all markets for utilities worldwide to implement PV technology now.

We have agreed to cooperate to speed the further commercialization of solar electric technology by sharing experience and working jointly for greater efficiency through the formation of alliances, new regulatory and incentive structures, and increased investments. We have identified significant issues which are retarding the growth of this technology, and we intend to find ways to overcome them.

We are committed to this path, as diverse representatives from all corners of the globe, because photovoltaic technology offers many benefits. These include:

• An increasingly practical means of delivering electricity to many of the two billion people, who have none. In developing nations, photovoltaics - at current prices - in many cases now offer the least costly approach to rural electrification. PV can help improve village health, sanitation, literacy, and development worldwide. New markets, business opportunities, employment and profits for the developed nations, through domestic installations for certain applications (peak load and off-grid systems, among others) and the growing export market.
• A means of using indigenous resources for energy security.
• Energy production without greenhouse gas emissions. As evidence mounts of the possibility of global climate change caused by carbon dioxide emissions, the world must look in part to a long-term transition to energy technologies - like photovoltaics - which do not contribute to global climate change.

Our companies, governments and NGOs pledge to continue our efforts to cooperate to speed the utilization of solar electric technologies worldwide. Let the world know that photovoltaics time has come.

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