How Solar Energy Became Cheap: A Model for Low-Carbon Innovation

In 2020 International Energy Agency (IEA) has declared that solar is the “new king” of power market and that it “offers the cheapest electricity in history”. IEA has been underestimating solar photovoltaics (PV) on the last few years and it is a big change of step these new declarations. Solar had a very rough way until reaching this stage of development and Nemet’s book tells the story of solar PV from Eistein to US$ 18/MWh, which was already unbelievably cheap in 2018. So, now we know that solar is cheap, contrary to expectations as recent as 2010, and this book shows how it happened. Thinking in the long term, lessons from solar PV can pave the way to make climate technologies more affordable and help environmental issues to a point that it is more about Economics than Environment, which is the case for solar nowadays.

If you want to understand how solar transformed itself from powering satellites to a $100 billion industry that is reinventing the world's grids, this is the book to read. While the book gets a little academic at points, the stories, first-person interviews, and the economic and policy analysis have never been covered this thoroughly that I'm aware of. Anyone new to the solar industry or considering joining it needs to read this. I'm recommending it to everyone I know in the business.