What is the future of solar power?
by Tyler Cowen from MarginalRevolution
Joshua Gans nails it:
If we believe Moore’s Law in solar, then the safe bet in terms of behavioural reactions is not to react. Within a decade or two, energy will be socially as cheap as it is privately as cheap now. That means that changing habits for environmental austerity is not the way to go.
I would make a simpler but less optimistic point. If a solar breakthrough is now likely, in which market prices do we see it reflected? It is true that fossil fuel prices took a steep tumble in the last few months, but I’ve never heard anyone suggest that price plunge had to do with a forthcoming solar revolution. It seems cyclical in nature, or perhaps related…