Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: global energy industry, solar economy, silicon revolution, United States, Middle East, Los Angeles (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Solar Revolution is an essential read because it analyzes the transformation of the global energy economy. The market will drive the new energy economy, and solar is already a growing and influential player. This is a positive vision of a sensible, practical, sustainable energy future."
—Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico and former U.S. Secretary of Energy

"Solar Revolution makes a powerful case for a disruptive shift in the energy marketplace—ushering in a post-fossil-fuel age. Where others despair in the face of 'peak oil' and out-of-control climate change, Travis Bradford sees a unique opportunity to create a clean new energy economy."
—Christopher Flavin, President, Worldwatch Institute

"Everyone who wants to understand the permanent energy answer that can reverse climate change, eliminate oil shocks, and avoid future Chernobyls should read this book. Bradford builds a compelling business case that solar energy is the most disruptive technology in history."
—Denis Hayes, Former Director, U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory

"This book challenges the energy debate: it shows in a convincing way that atomic and fossil energies are dispensable and could be replaced totally by renewables within some decades."
—Hermann Scheer, General Chairman, World Council for Renewable Energy, and member of the German Parliament

"This book is a rigorous but intensely practical analysis of how the world's energy future should evolve. It will be valuable not only for scholars dealing with the technological and policy aspects of energy, but also for the concerned citizen who may have no specialized knowledge of the issues. Solar Revolution should receive worldwide attention for exploring the pathways that can guide the world towards a renewable energy future."
—R.K. Pachauri, Director-General, The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi, and Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

"This is a timely and much-needed book. The solar industry is evolving with dramatic speed, both technologically and economically. With a business perspective and a wealth of knowledge about the solar industry and the wider energy economy, Travis Bradford provides an excellent account of solar energy today."
—Dan Kammen, Professor and Founding Director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley

"While the book is a bit technical, even a solar-novice can learn plenty about the past and present of solar energy, and what may be in store for the future."
— E-The Environmental Magazine

Product Description

In Solar Revolution, fund manager and former corporate buyout specialist Travis Bradford argues—on the basis of standard business and economic forecasting models—that over the next two decades solar energy will increasingly become the best and cheapest choice for most electricity and energy applications. Solar Revolution outlines the path by which the transition to solar technology and sustainable energy practices will occur.

Developments in the photovoltaic (PV) industry over the last ten years have made direct electricity generation from PV cells a cost-effective and feasible energy solution, despite the common view that PV technology appeals only to a premium niche market. Bradford shows that PV electricity today has become the choice of hundreds of thousands of mainstream homeowners and businesses in many markets worldwide, including Japan, Germany, and the American Southwest.

Solar energy will eventually be the cheapest source of energy in nearly all markets and locations because PV can bypass the aging and fragile electricity grid and deliver its power directly to the end user, fundamentally changing the underlying economics of energy. As the scale of PV production increases and costs continue to decline at historic rates, demand for PV electricity will outpace supply of systems for years to come.

Ultimately, the shift from fossil fuels to solar energy will take place not because solar energy is better for the environment or energy security, or because of future government subsidies or as yet undeveloped technology. The solar revolution is already occurring through decisions made by self-interested energy users. The shift to solar energy is inevitable and will be as transformative as the last century's revolutions in information and communication technologies.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 254 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1 edition (September 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 026202604X
• ISBN-13: 978-0262026048
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #388,220 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Revolution for whom?, February 9, 2007

By	Stephen C. Baer "Steve Baer" (Albuquerque, NM) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a clearly written short book with good news about photovoltaics by someone familiar with economics and business. Although its title is Solar Revolution, there are many aspects of solar energy in which he shows little interest and this makes the prospects for his revolution depressing. Here are the basics of the solar revolution as he sees it.

The revolution's goal is to overthrow the use of fossil fuels and nuclear power, but all without returning to any of the traditional uses of solar energy that supported mankind through history. We abandoned Mother Nature's solar teat to suckle on giant bottles of fossil fuels. Now the bottles are going dry and we want to return to solar, but it's got to come in bottles, be electric, be synthetic. Bradford's concern is the preservation and continued growth of our use of electricity. When you stop to consider that electricity is a means to an end and not an end in itself - as, for example, water or food - this is a puzzle.

Our appetites expressed through the market place are too slack for Bradford, the revolutionary. Although he claims to wish an end to subsidies, it is hard to believe him. He greatly admires Japan and Germany for their fanatical government-directed drive for photovoltaics. On September 1, 2006 Sharp electronics, a company singled out for special praise by Bradford, ran full page color picture ads in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times. They boasted that their Kameyama plant "features the world's largest solar energy system".

A glance at their building shows they use no skylights. They cover every inch of roof with PV panels. The walls have few if any windows. The building looks like a giant sealed-off, above ground termite nest.

The Japanese and Bradford are confused. Skylights and windows are much better at providing light than PV panels wired to light bulbs indoors. Bradford drives on saying (page 175) that "R&D funding by industrialized countries' governments for renewable energy is crucial for market growth because it helps resolve a commonly observed market failure in economics - that is, that businesses collectively underinvest in R&D and basic science compared to what a socially optimal level would be." How does he know? Who is to decide what is socially optimal?

If you look at the fate of daylight, foot travel, bicycles, clotheslines and other traditional solar powered ways, you see that we are giving up genuine, tested effective uses of the sun at the same time as we are urged to adopt synthetic hi-tech solar energy.

Bradford gives only lip service to passive solar, about 1 page out of 200. . On page 187 he writes the ominous sentence, "solar power will be increasingly big business because it will be increasingly good business". Yet traditional and passive uses of solar energy are the most cost effective

As this reader has come to expect from the MIT Press, there are a number of typos and confused mistakes such as on page 200, "1 kWh equals 3.4 Btu" and on page 187, "in 2003 some 10% of new electric generation capacity installed worldwide was non-hydro renewable".

I found the sun, but no clouds in Bradford's book. PV panels can supply megawatts of power one minute and when clouds arrive, almost nothing a few minutes later. How do utilities fill in? He glosses over this.

Bradford's study is part of a spell we have fallen under where we confuse consumption of electricity with success.

Steve Baer
Zomeworks Corporation
Albuquerque, New Mexico USA

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating look at energy alternatives, September 14, 2006

By	Sorin Grama (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a well-written, well-researched book comprising a wealth of knowledge and statistics on traditional and renewable energy sources. Even if you know nothing about solar energy, you'll find this book fascinating and informative. With energy becoming such a hot topic these days, the book will give you an excellent background on a wide range of energy resources along with a captivating story about a possible future alternative. Highly recommended!

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Objective analysis based on sound economics, December 5, 2006

By	D. Miller - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A great look at the actual costs of electricity generated and delivered through a wide range of channels. Based on sound economic principles, the book illustrates how solar power will become competitive in price to fossil fuel-generated electricity in the near future (years, not decades).

Is it convincing? Suprisingly, yes. The reasons why the #'s fall in favor of solar in the near future have a lot to do with the distributed nature of solar power (no added transmission infrastruture costs), and the fact that solar power is generated most easily during the time of day when electric loads peak.

Check it out and see if you agree with the author's analysis. If so, our future is going to be a lot greener than many of us would have thought.