Solar Takes Over

In 1954, the photovoltaic solar cell was invented by researchers at the Bell Labs¹. In 1973, a demonstration house was opened at the University of Delaware that was all-solar-powered and drew over a hundred thousand visitors in its first year.² After gradual growth for almost 50 years, solar power is now reaching its promise, with the world now installing a terawatt of new solar power every 2 years and adding a gigawatt of solar panels every fifteen hours.³ 

Instead of referring to solar energy as “alternative” it is now the preferred and obvious choice for energy for the world and it is being widely adopted. It might be time to start calling fossil fuels “legacy”. 

California is a good example of this progress: in March of this year, for the first time, less than half of the electricity generated in California was from fossil fuels. Battery storage has increased by 76% and is effective for use at night and to smooth out fluctuations in solar power.⁴ Formerly natural-gas turbines (spinning reserves) provided these functions. As grid-scale batteries are being installed, natural gas demand is now down by 40% since 2023.

China is growing renewable energy and storage at a pace faster than anywhere else in the world. Carbon emissions from generating electricity in China fell by 6% in the first quarter of this year, largely as a result of solar power replacing coal. Almost half of the automobiles sold in China in 2024 were electric or hybrids. China builds the lion's share of the world's PV panels and is also the leader of  producing battery technology. Grid-scale batteries are now able to power a city for hours at a time⁵.

Sometimes we don’t notice this kind of change amidst the fraught headlines on the daily news. This trend is now unstoppable, and in a few years we will live in a very different world than we do today.

Hopefully...better.

Reading

1. Perlin, J. (2005). Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy. New World Library.
2. Karl W. Böer (1976). “Solar One: The Solar Heated and Photovoltaic-Powered Residence.”
3. “California Profile.” Accessed July 10, 2025. https://www.eia.gov/state/print.php?sid=CA.
4. “ Special Report on Battery Storage”. California Independent System Operator, 2025 https://www.caiso.com/documents/2024-special-report-on-battery-storage-may-29-2025.pdf
5. IEA. “Energy Storage.” Accessed July 10, 2025. https://www.iea.org/energy-system/electricity/grid-scale-storage.
6. Bill McKibben (2025). 46 Billion years on, the Sun is Having a Moment.  https://www.newyorker.com/news/annals-of-a-warming-planet/46-billion-years-on-the-sun-is-having-a-moment