New Energy’s Two Paths
Why the solar revolution is in grave danger—and how it can be saved
Varun Sivaram, June 6, 2018 (Quartz)
“…The year is 2050…[Climate change is debilitating the world as] fossil fuels continue to exert a stranglehold on the global economy…Part of the problem was that even as the cost of producing electricity from solar PV fell, the value of that electricity—the amount that a utility, for instance, was willing to pay for it…decreased even faster. The value diminished because a power source tied to unreliable sunshine quickly becomes a nuisance as it grows…[The falling cost of batteries did] make it feasible to store some of the unused daytime solar power for later in the evening…but they were too expensive to use for smoothing out the day-to-day variations in solar PV output…[W]ind power rose alongside solar PV for a time…[but faced the same] limits…
…[In the alternative 2050, the] dramatic rise of clean energy has prevented climate change from spiraling out of control—and in the process powered economic growth and lifted the world’s destitute out of darkness…Solar energy is the linchpin of this clean energy revolution…[Concentrated solar power plants] are able to store the heat that they capture to produce power throughout the night…[A panoply of New Energy] technologies is the result of farsighted decisions…[Continent-spanning smart power grids] transmit signals to billions of Internet-connected devices…Wind power has ably supplemented solar, rising steadily…[T]he second future is not science fiction, but rather still an achievable goal. To arrive at it, the world must address the many challenges…” click here for more
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