The Great Transition – Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy: Shifting From Fossil Fuels To Wind And Solar Energy

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This is a terrific contribution from an experienced writer on environmental issues.It has been a long struggle to bring the costs of solar energy and other renewable sources down to a point where they can actually compete in the energy marketplace, even without major government incentives.That's the case for wind and solar, as Brown describes so well in this new book. Other renewable energy sources are also making great strides, as are efficient buildings and efficient transportation -- not to mention research accomplishments on energy storage technologies, efficient long-distance electricity grid designs, and massive new investments in green energy.The only deficiency of is the lack of graphics to support the text. But never mind that. Web searches on wave energy, tidal energy, ocean current energy, solar electric, solar thermal, energy storage, geothermal, wind turbines, electric grids, and renewable energy economics can put these images plus relevant charts and graphs at your fingertips.For example, when I started out as a solar scientist in 1976, the holy grail in the photovoltaic world was getting the price of PV down to an amazingly low price of 50¢ per peak Watt of electrical output. At that time the price was over $76/peak Watt. Take a look at the astounding bar chart of this price from 1976 to 2015 here:https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Price_history_of_silicon_PV_cells_since_1977.svgIt turns out that we passed the 50¢/Wp point in 2013 and now the price is an amazingly 30¢/Wp, thanks mainly to China's recent burst in solar equipment manufacturing, aided along the way by the United States, Japan, and Germany.If you divide the cost of a PV array (multiply the peak Watts generated by the array by the current price per peak Watt to get the cost) by the expected lifetime of the system in years, you get the approximate yearly cost of the electricity generated by that system. This is like the annual amortized price of the investment. In many cases, this calculation yields an electricity price comparable to and even much lower than electric utility prices for the equivalent energy that would otherwise have to be purchased. This simply says that in some cases PV solar is cheaper electricity than current utility prices.Added to the fact that electric utility prices are increasing while solar prices are coming down, you have the makings of a giant energy transition--away from fossil fuels--thereby reducing significantly the emission of global warming gases that threaten our global climate. A similar price revolution has come to large wind turbine farms, which are in many cases cheaper and quicker to install than a fossil fuel power plant, with similar economic advantages,A result of the solar (and wind) price revolution is that businesses around the world are filling their roofs with PV solar arrays to provide much of their electrical load during their daytime hours of operation, and when excess power is generated, it is fed back into the electrical grid, "running the meter backwards" so-to-speak, substantially reducing their electricity bill. In some areas, this is so prominent that electric utilities are charging impact fees to compensate for their significant losses of revenue as customers use (and pay for) less utility electricity. A new solar rights movement has started up, with the goal of blocking legislation pushed by electric companies to outlaw solar electricity from residential rooftops unless the electric utility owns and/or installs them.Wind has become very popular too, as costs have plummeted, and giant wind farms have been built in several countries. The same is true of large solar PV and solar thermal energy installations. To meet the challenge of solar and wind intermittency, efficient, high voltage DC long distance utility-scale electric grids are being built to transport wind and solar electricity from places and times where it is abundant to places where the local solar is absent or diminished.The energy industry is changing rapidly around the world -- as free market economies begin switching to energy conservation and renewable energy in big ways, both with and without government incentives. It might be possible to get the global warming thing under control before it is too late to do anything about it! I highly recommend Lester Brown's new book on this subject. Read and be astounded.

I've been an unabashed admirer of Lester Brown for years. This book contains little, if any, new research. Rather it is a concise overview of the present state of development of renewable energy sources. As always, Brown uses none of the harsh rhetoric that is a characteristic of so many discussions about climate change, the oil and gas industry, and alternative energy. Buy it. Read it.

Very informative book. Easy to read and will get you up to speed with the current transition to renewables. Working for a utilities company and dealing with Wind Energy and IT I see the transisition happening up close.

Great and useful info but not a word about the growing hydrogen revolution. Why, why? Perhaps we need to read Rachel Maddow's new book - BLOWOUT.