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

Price: $55.99 - $26.62
(as of Aug 25, 2025 21:00:38 UTC – Details)

Solar energy is a substantial global industry, one that has generated trade disputes among superpowers, threatened the solvency of large energy companies, and prompted serious reconsideration of electric utility regulation rooted in the 1930s. One of the biggest payoffs from solar’s success is not the clean inexpensive electricity it can produce, but the lessons it provides for innovation in other technologies needed to address climate change.

Despite the large literature on solar, including analyses of increasingly detailed datasets, the question as to how solar became inexpensive and why it took so long still remains unanswered. Drawing on developments in the US, Japan, Germany, Australia, and China, this book provides a truly comprehensive and international explanation for how solar has become inexpensive. Understanding the reasons for solar’s success enables us to take full advantage of solar’s potential. It can also teach us how to support other low-carbon technologies with analogous properties, including small modular nuclear reactors and direct air capture. However, the urgency of addressing climate change means that a key challenge in applying the solar model is in finding ways to speed up innovation. Offering suggestions and policy recommendations for accelerated innovation is another key contribution of this book.

This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy technology and innovation, climate change and energy analysis and policy, as well as practitioners and policymakers working in the existing and emerging energy industries.

From the Publisher

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Routledge
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 31, 2019
Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Print length ‏ : ‎ 238 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0367136597
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0367136598
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 7.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.14 x 0.59 x 9.21 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #1,855,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #2,797 in Environmental Economics (Books) #3,510 in Ecology (Books) #3,894 in Environmental Science (Books)
Customer Reviews: 3.8 3.8 out of 5 stars 15 ratings var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });