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processor? Similarly, a self-powered solar cell phone or a case that charges your laptop
will be something we can have in the near future. To some degree, you can choose your
own solar adventure, for the solar-powered future is at hand.
Butdon'tthinkthisallwillcomeeasilyandwithoutlotsofmetaphoricalblood,sweat,
and tears. We can't be complacent and wait for it to happen, for as far into the woods as
we've traveled chasing our societal fossil-fuel addiction is as far out as we have to walk
toward the sun. To win the energy battle, we need to organize, get solar on our homes,
and demand positive energy policies. We solar citizens must stand up and be counted, as
do the people employed in the industry and all of those who want to pursue the many
commercial opportunities that low-cost solar makes possible. Spawning easy and afford-
able solutions for low-cost solar hardware will take lots of genius, human hours, and
solar entrepreneurship—from financial whizzes and software engineers to creative mar-
keters and, most importantly, passionate consumers.
Fordecadestocome,themassivemakeoverofourinefficient,stored-solar-power(aka
fossil fuels) conversion grid to a future-state direct solar, sunshine mesh needs to be de-
signed, financed, built, and maintained—all of which will take time and a huge amount
of work. Happily, a huge amount of work means an equally big number of new jobs in
existing trades and professions as well as in innovative categories, like the “remote solar
designer” position that Sungevity created: engineers who design a solar system for your
home using software and aerial imagery so that they never have to bother you at your
house.
Adoption of solar power is a key solution both to the economic downturn and to the
climate change calamities caused by our dependence on ol' King CONG. Just as the rise
of the steam engines from the mineshafts of England was a harbinger of the Industrial
Revolution that swept the globe, the mass adoption of solar power will transform our
economy in ways that are broadly beneficial. In the past few years, solar job creation has
outpaced the greater economy tenfold. Meanwhile, the fossil-fuel electricity-generation
industries shed 2 percent of their employees. There are now more than 100,000 workers
in the US solar industry, which means they outnumber coal miners in this country.
We're playing in the big leagues and can't drop the ball. To win the game, we need
to stay in the game—and to do that we have to build political momentum and economic
vitality. Our efforts are already paying off. The conservative intergovernmental Interna-
tional Energy Agency (IEA) is now predicting that by 2050 most of the world's electri-
city could come from solar power. The keyword here is
could
because it all depends on
what energy policy our nation chooses, what we as voters and consumers demand, and
the kinds of solar businesses our best and brightest build over the next few decades. The
IEA forecasts that we could create astounding wealth and opportunity—a many thou-
sandfold increase in solar adoption in just 40 years. As a campaigner with Greenpeace,
