Can solar energy save the world?

Fascinating debate in the current issue of The Economist regarding solar energy.  We think that the very fact that the debate has moved on to discuss the possibility of solar PV becoming a main energy source tells us how the industry has matured.

Once again,  the opposing view constantly refers to the subsidies solar energy attracts.  The implication is that energy derived from hydrocarbons is available without subsidy.  This is nonsense,  of course.  Apart from the public subsidy that every major energy infrastructure has required, there is the political and military capital required to secure supplies of oil and gas from countries where that supply cannot be taken for granted.   An increasing amount of the UK’s energy source is going to be affected by economic,  political and natural events over which we have no control or influence.  Anyone who really believes that oil and gas generation carries no subsidy must naively believe that those Gulf wars really were fought to bring human rights and female emancipation to the Middle East.  

We think it makes more sense to subsidise an energy source which isn’t reliant on imported commodities.  You can follow the debate here..

http://www.economist.com/debate/debates/overview/263