Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
I spent years protesting the lack of consideration that the IEA gave to clean energy, and
now the agency is even more bullish on solar than I am!
Imagine for a moment how much work we could create with 50 percent of our elec-
tricity coming from different forms and applications of solar power. The solar industry
currently produces less than 1 percent of electricity and employs 100,000 individuals.
Does that mean 5 million more people would soon be solar workers? Probably not, be-
cause with scale comes efficiency (meaning some of the work could be done through
automated technology), but certainly many millions would be engaged in the industry.
A study by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance showed that making the United States a
100percentsolarnationwouldcreatenearly10millionjobs.Soevenifthesolarindustry
were to displace every employee who makes a living working for Dirty Energy (an im-
possible scenario), we would still have a net gain of 7 million jobs—and we hope that
there will be places in the solar industry for those who leave Dirty Energy (see
chapter
Someofthesejobgainswillbeintheopportunitythatsolarpowerunlocksinadjacent
spaces: in building and roofing materials, in financial products banking on the sun, and
indigitalandsoftwarecompaniesneededtoharnessthispotentialandadaptittoourcur-
rent condition.
Why Solar Will Win
I believe that everyone is going to go solar because it's better—not just better for the
pocketbook, not just better for the planet, not just better for jobs or the economy or se-
curity but because it's the best idea ever—better than the wheel and the automobile and
human flight and Google.
The idea is spreading that solar power is better than fire. It provides the services we
get from fire without burning stuff first. This reality is catching on and will soon be
ablaze. Indeed, I believe going solar is a shift in what it means to be human. It's our next
big step.
So far, evolution's great achievement was getting past eating raw food that we could
“hunt and gather” and instead cooking it so that it wouldn't spoil and therefore lasted
longer. Humans' lives improved by leaps and bounds with that one change. And with a
cookingfirewecouldalsowarmacave,changeourhabitat,andlightupthenight,which
changedourlivesforthebetter.Andthenweusedourabilitytolightfirestoboilwaterto
makeelectricity.Andinmanywaysthathasmadeourlivesbetterstill.Fireisgood.And
fire in a wire, as an electric current, is even better—no local pollution, no smoke. For
manybillionsofpeople,it'sablessing.Besideswarmingus,cookingourfood,andlight-
ing our way in the dark, electricity allows us to travel on trams and trains and planes, en-
