FREELAND - If you think solar power peaked in the 1970s, think again.

In five years, energy from the sun will be competitive with traditional sources like coal and nuclear, predicts Eric Peeters, executive director of Dow Corning Solar Solutions. You'll be able to power your home with more efficient, less costly and smaller solar panels, for instance.

The innovations will be hatched at a $3 million, 27,000-square-foot Solar Solutions Application Center that Dow Corning Corp. opened Friday at an existing company building in Freeland.

Right now, solar panels aren't as cost competitive with traditional power sources, or efficient as they could be.

But Dow Corning says it has the answer - a process called encapsulation - that will use silicone to make panels that can harness more of the sun's energy than existing technologies.

''The future of solar is brilliant,'' Peeters said. ''It's going to become a real part of our lives.''

In one hour, the sun puts out enough energy to power the entire planet for one year, Peeters said. Harnessing that power is the key.

Most solar panels today are made with EVA, or ethylene vinyl acetate, said Chad Steiner, a program manager at the Freeland facility.

Dow Corning, based in Bay County's Williams Township, plans to use silicone to make photovoltaic, or solar, panels.

The method is meant to protect, seal and prevent corrosion of the panels.

Silicone also is more transparent than EVA, allowing more visible and ultraviolet light to reach the cell and be captured and harnessed, Steiner said.

That increases efficiency by ''1-3 relative percentage points,'' he said, allowing panels to generate more watts and more money for manufacturers.

The Solar Solutions Application Center aims to show manufacturers how to improve their existing solar technologies through a collaborative, hands-on process.

''This is where all the fun stuff is going to happen,'' said Don Sheets, a vice president at Dow Corning.

THALHEIM, Germany: This sad stretch of eastern Germany, with its deserted coal mines and corroded factories, epitomizes post-industrial gloom. It is a place where even the clouds rarely seem to part.

Yet the sun was shining here the other day - and nowhere more brightly than at Q-Cells, a German company that last year overtook Sharp, a Japanese company, to become the world's largest maker of photovoltaic solar cells. Q-Cells is the anchor tenant in a flowering cluster of solar start-ups here, known as Solar Valley.

Thanks to its aggressive push into renewable energies, a cloud-wreathed Germany has become an unlikely world leader in the race to harness the sun's energy. It has by far the largest market for photovoltaic systems, which convert sunlight into electricity, with roughly half of the world's total installed capacity. And it is the third-largest producer of solar cells and modules, after China and Japan.

Now, though, with so many solar panels on so many rooftops, critics say Germany has too much of a good thing. Even at a time of record oil prices, solar is encountering resistance from conservative lawmakers who want to pare back its generous state incentives. They say it is growing at an unhealthy pace, threatening to burden consumers with too many costs in the form of higher electricity bills.

Solar-energy entrepreneurs warn that reducing these incentives would deprive Germany of its pole position in an industry of tomorrow. They liken Germany to the United States and Japan, which were both once solar stars but faded as their subsidies became less attractive.

Google has stepped up its commitment to solar power with an investment of $10m in local company BrightSource Energy.

The investment in the California-based firm was made through Google.org, the company's non-profit philanthropic venture.

The BrightSource deal is the second such investment Google has made in solar power, after taking a stake in eSolar last month.

BrightSource is raising cash in the hope of constructing a series of huge solar power plants in California's Mojave Desert capable of supplying up to 900MW of electricity.

"Solar thermal energy generation is one of the key emerging industries addressing the changing global climate and we are excited about our current investments in solar thermal technology," Google investment strategy manager Chris Busselle and green energy strategy team member Kevin Chen said in a blog posting.

"We believe that by supporting researchers and entrepreneurs taking different, ambitious approaches and risks to generate clean energy, we can help to accelerate, progress and increase the collective economic value of these new clean energy industries."

The investments are part of Google's 'Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal' initiative.

The company is assembling a team of researchers and engineers in the hope of creating a Gigawatt of energy for less than it costs to generate the same amount at a coal-burning power plant.

A conference organized by Israeli President Shimon Peres to mark the country's 60th anniversary kicked off May 13 with a showcase of 60 pioneering Israeli firms that have the potential to shake up medicine, biotech, clean energy, transportation, information technology, and communications. Among them was Luz II, a Jerusalem thermal solar energy company with more than one reason to celebrate its newfound recognition.

Early the next day, Luz II announced it had raised $115 million in financing from a high-profile group of investors including Google.org—the philanthropy offshoot of Internet giant Google (GOOG)—and Black River Asset Management, an asset management unit of agricultural giant Cargill. Also participating in the funding are the investment arms of two major oil companies, BP (BP) Alternative Energy and StatoilHydro Venture.

All of Luz II's previous investors also kicked in to the latest round, including the Chevron Technology Ventures unit of Chevron (CVX), Silicon Valley venture firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Morgan Stanley (MS), and DBL Investors, a former unit of JP Morgan (JPM), bringing the company's total funding to date to more than $160 million.