At face value, solar energy is a drop in the bucket of global energy sources. By 2020 it will make up just 2 percent of worldwide electricity supply according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Yet that is just one side of the coin. A broader view shows that solar is on a bright path as more solar capacity has been installed since 2010 than in the previous four decades. Further, the International Energy Agency (IEA) expects the cost of solar energy to drop significantly in the approaching decades, perhaps justifying the projection that this clean technology will provide 16 percent of the world’s electric power by 2050.
This progress, of course, stems from trial and error. Large-scale acceptance is born project by project. One man’s solar endeavor becomes the showcase for another’s curiosities.