Solar is "offensively cheap". To live up to its promise, it also needs to be equitable.
This year, solar will represent 10% of power generation. Abundant, clean energy is great news - but there's more work to do to make sure every community benefits.
This is something we should all be excited about:
“The world's solar power is crossing a threshold. A decade ago, it barely registered on a global scale, providing just 1% of the world's power. In 2026, it will almost certainly increase to 10% of power, and overtake nuclear, a mainstay of electricity since the late 1970s.”
Solar energy is abundant, and the cheaper and more efficient it gets, the more electricity there will be to power anything we want. On that level alone, we should be cheering for its success.
But the other property solar energy has is relative decentralization. While not anyone can build a solar panel, anyone can plug one in — and, obviously, the sun belongs to everyone. It represents real energy independence, not just internationally, but from large energy companies (at every level from fossil fuel multinationals to utilities) that have enjoyed enormous influence for over a century.
Or it should. Energy companies have sponsored laws, rules, and regulations in the US and elsewhere that have made it harder for people to plug solar in. Those should be defeated, and our electrical systems should be upgraded to take decentralized solar into account.
But the power dynamics don’t end at the influence of energy companies: a large share of the polysilicon in solar panels is produced in Xinjiang, where there have been well-documented allegations of forced labor of Uyghurs and other minority groups. Batteries often contain cobalt, which is dug from the Democratic Republic of Congo, often by hand and often by children and slaves. They also contain lithium, drawn from brine operations that drain water from Indigenous communities in the Andes.
The next frontier needs to be freeing these technologies from harm — and there’s a long way to go. There’s some promise from tech like nickel-and-cobalt-free LFP batteries, more ethical lithium extraction, and recycling, but these need further investment, and the underlying issues require sustained attention. There is an energy revolution, but everyone should see the benefits.
