The Clean Energy Revolution is Here
Change happens fast.
We often recognize it after it’s occurred.
And it’s happening VERY FAST now with renewable energy.
The clean energy revolution is upon us.
Whether we see it or not.
But, first, a quick history lesson.
Way back in 1995 there were two tiny companies.
Google had just become Google, Inc.
It got its first million dollars from NSF.
The entire WWW fit on Stanford’s servers.
Sergei Brin was an NSF Fellow while learning how to rank webpages.
The New York Times wasn’t interested in an ownership stake in Google then.
Meanwhile, a second tiny company acquired another NSF-incubated firm.
Amazon’s acquisition of the digital web play allowed it branch out beyond just books.
That happened in the same month as Google, Inc.
Both had disrupted the global economy within a decade.
They thoroughly dominated it in just 20 years.
This warp speed of change is happening across the clean energy economy.
NSF placed a massive bet on batteries and grid modernization a decade ago.
It put a billion dollars of ARRA funding (directed by then VP Joe Biden) into both.
Both are paying off now.
Every car company in the world is racing to build electric vehicles.
China just partnered with BP and Shell on joint ventures to swap batteries for EVs.
Every analyst sees half of all cars sold as EVs by 2030.
The grid can now handle (and store) decentralized renewable energy.
Utilities can now build solar and wind faster and cheaper than coal.
Every new building can now be energy efficient.
Every new house can have solar roof tiles.
Electric Cars.
Solar-powered homes.
Energy-efficient buildings.
Energy distribution across a modern grid.
Nearly everything in America could be electrified by 2035.
All of it powered by renewable energy sources.
Only a lack of imagination can stop the clean energy revolution.
(* Oh, yeah, and maybe Joe Manchin.)
Fossil fuels powered the Industrial Revolution.
Technology defined the 20th century global economy.
Clean energy will revolutionize the 21st.
Change happens fast.
