Jenny Chase who analyzes the solar power sector at BloombergNEF had hoped in 2005 that sunlight would eventually generate 1% of the world’s electricity. She was way off. Now solar accounts for more that 3% and is expected to reach 56% by 2050.
Some hope that the boom in renewables providing electrification will alter global economics on a scale similar to that of the Industrial Revolution.
The International Energy Agency declared solar power to be the cheapest new form of electricity in many places around the world
Others, such as Saul Griffith, in his book Electrify, caution that a huge transformation in the infrastructure grid is required to move toward the goal of 56%
He maintains that many of the barriers to a clean energy future are systemic and bureaucratic, and not technological.
Taken from the New York Times, April 29, article written by Farhad Manjoo