Solar is the fastest-growing form of energy in history.
In 2004, it took a year to install a gigawatt of solar panels globally.
In 2010, a month.
In 2016, a week.
In 2023, a day.
In 2024, half a day.
What’s a gigawatt? A gigawatt is equal to 1 billion watts. (Remember 100-watt lightbulbs? A gigawatt of electricity would light around 10 million lightbulbs.)
The speed of the clean energy transition has been underestimated by virtually every expert, every energy guru, and certainly every political leader.
One big reason is not understanding solar and wind as energy-transporting technologies. They aren’t sources of energy like coal, oil and gas. Solar panels and wind turbines simply transport the freely available energy from sunlight and wind.
As technologies, solar and wind are more like smartphones in that efficiencies, improvements, and breakthroughs can come thick and fast. (For more on this see NtK Save $12 Trillion with Rapid Clean-Energy Transition.)
Solar panels absorb sunlight (a form of energy) through photovoltaic panels and converted it into electricity. Roughly 20 to 25% of the energy in sunlight hitting the panel is converted into electricity on average. New panel technologies may get this to 30%, and even 35%.
A plant only converts 0.023% of the sunlight energy it receives.
That’s why plants are shitty solar panels and why ethanol is a dumb idea that wastes millions of acres of land better used to grow food. (See NtK How Solar Could Free Up 29.8 Million Acres of Prime US Farmland.)
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Solar is not only the fastest-growing source of electricity, it’s by far the cheapest. Yes, solar is cheaper than almost any other power source even with the cost of batteries to store energy for use at night. There are endless ways solar can be deployed:
Solar panels are increasingly used to cover canals and other water bodies to generate power while reducing evaporation.
Solar panels can be elevated above crops and livestock to provide electricity and shade.
Two-sided panels (bifacial panels) are being used as fencing.
Even the top of some cars have thin-film solar panels.
One in three homes in Australia have solar panels on their roofs. Even in the conservative state of Queensland, 82% of homes have solar. All of this happened in just 20 years. It won’t take that long before nearly every home has solar.
Bottom line: solar is popular because it reduces energy costs. Imagine, free electricity year after year. What’s not to love?
Until next time, be well.
Stephen
Solar power isn’t free, nor green