Other articles by Cecil Johnson:

Was Mozart a genius, or did he just practice really hard? 'New' management truths sometimes started as heresies Minorities get a stiff reminder that good is not good enough Economic competition between nations is fiercer 'Executricks' a guide to how to retire while still holding down that job Buffett, other business figures are profiled in splendid anthology 'Three Moves Ahead: What Chess Can Teach You About Business (Even If You've Never Played)' Markets often sense world shifts before so-called experts Success in business, like gambling, a matter of boosting luck Organizations can resemble 'tribes' in their shared values

Construction
West-Press
Printing Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator Health Care
CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE
DIRECTOR OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Mechanical
Komatsu Equipment Co
Resident Field Mechanic Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Administrative & Professional
Tucson Urban League
CEO/President Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist

Solar energy has emerged as the wave of the present for replacing dwindling fossil fuels as the primary source of the world's energy needs, writes fund manager and former corporate buyout expert Travis Bradford.

In his new book, "Solar Revolution," Bradford says that is happening not so much because solar is the clean, renewable fountain of energy craved by environmentalists but because it has proved to be cost-effective.

Bradford, president and founder of the Cambridge, Mass.-based Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development, says we are on the doorstep of the solar era. He's not forecasting something that will occur in the next century. Bradford offers the evidence of a trend that is well under way and that will gain relentless momentum within the next two decades.

Although that process could be expedited by more government incentives for the promotion of solar energy use and disincentives for investment in fossil fuels and nuclear power, the inevitable dominance of solar will not depend on government assistance, Bradford writes.

"Many people both inside and outside government are promoting renewable energy, but the belief that a renewable-energy economy will not happen without greater government support — as environmentalists too often argue — is wrong," he writes.

"The shift will happen in years rather than decades and will occur because of fundamental economics."

Bradford says the primary reasons for the inevitable dominance of solar energy in the "energy portfolio" of the world, is the demonstrated cost-effectiveness of photovoltaic cells (PV) to generate and distribute electricity.

Bradford notes particularly the extent to which PV electricity is proving cost-effective in Japan and Germany.

"Never before has solar energy been cost-effective in an industrialized market like Japan with sufficient financing, size, and industrial capability to drive steady cost improvements.," Bradford says.

Despite his argument for the inevitable dominance of solar energy, Bradford acknowledges that the world's energy needs will continue to be met by a variety of energy sources, including fossil fuels, nuclear and such renewable alternatives as hydroelectric, geothermal, fusion, wind and biomass.

He points out benefits, negatives and limitations of each.

He cites the growing scarcity of, rising costs of and pollution attached to fossil fuels; the potential catastrophic perils of nuclear, its unsolved hazardous-waste problem, the long time frame of plant construction and the monumental hidden costs of decommissioning nuclear-power plants; the aesthetic problems of windmill farms and the intermittent nature of wind; the deforestation and agricultural land-use problems of biomass; and the as-yet-unproven promise of fusion.

The primary problems that Bradford foresees for solar are an inability to keep up with growing demand, lack of the support businesses that such a growing industry needs and opposition from entrenched utility companies and fossil-fuel and nuclear interests.

In the 1980s and '90s, Bradford says, the oil companies were the largest manufacturers of PV but declined to promote it because it conflicted with their historic energy interests.

But today, he points out, the growth in the PV industry is being generated by Japanese and German microelectronics manufacturers.

Every American who pays or knows someone who pays an electric bill should read "Solar Revolution" and become aware of the facts and figures that are necessary to challenge plans by many utility companies to build outmoded and polluting plants that use fossil fuels.