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As the energy crisis escalates—and the price of gas and electricity with it—a new book predicts that in the next two decades, solar will become the cheapest energy source for most applications, and will be widely adopted by consumers in both the developed and developing worlds.

SOLAR REVOLUTION: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industry goes beyond moral and altruistic arguments for solar energy to show how today’s dramatically changing market forces point to solar as the inevitable energy source of tomorrow’s self-interested consumers.

In SOLAR REVOLUTION, Bradford predicts an inevitable shift to solar energy that will transform everyday life as radically as did the last century’s revolutions in information and communication technologies. In the past three decades computers and telephones have become decentralized and wireless. Solar energy will do the same for the energy industry, using nearly identical semiconductor technologies and for the same economic reasons–harnessing the nearly limitless energy from the sun.

Bradford considers the pros and cons of other renewable energy sources including nuclear, hydroelectricity, wind, geothermal, and biomass. While all these energy sources will play a role in the future, Bradford predicts that solar energy will become the cheapest for two reasons. First, solar energy already cost-effectively supplies a portion of utilities’ needs for daytime electricity, and its competitiveness is growing rapidly. And secondly, photovoltaics, distributed on a small scale instead of on today’s industrial-size electricity grids, will begin to unravel the economies of scale that Edison’s electricity transmission created over the last century.

SOLAR REVOLUTION shows the steps that governments and businesses can take now to accelerate the solar revolution so that it becomes, not tomorrow’s dream, but today’s reality.

Advance Praise for SOLAR REVOLUTION

“Solar Revolution is an essential read because it analyzes the transformation of the global energy economy... a positive vision of a sensible, practical, sustainable energy future.”
—Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico and former US Secretary of Energy

“[Solar Revolution] is a timely and much-needed book. 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, Founding Director of the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley

“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

“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

“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