Solar Revolution

I’ve expressed my displeasure of the current solar market before. Now the folks at MIT are pleding to revolutionize the technology for the very near future. For me, this is both great news, and not so great news. Supposing MIT is successful and in a few years announces a breakthrough in solar power, making it–as promised–abundant and affordable, the burning of fossil fuels, and potentially even nuclear power, will quickly go bust. That’s a lot of jobs going away, worldwide, including, potentially, mine (Though I’m not in the power generation business myself, the company I work for is owned by a Fortune 500 energy corporation.
On the other hand, it would mean that mankind’s carbon footprint would, what, half? It would shrink astronomically, regardless. And let’s face it, if we all had our own power generation resource, we would be more independent (to me that’s a good thing). If my power went out due to a storm, I’d have the materials and skill to get myself back online and wouldn’t have to wait for the power company to get to my street. Sure, I might still be down for a few days, but I’d have something to keep me busy, right?
So what will our lives be like in 20 years? Speculating that MIT’s pledge is a smashing success and cheap, renewable power is available worldwide, the world will change. Everything will change. Our lives, for better or poorer, will change. This could be the foundation for what will become the Singularity, the dawning of a new civilization. Things are happening rapidly, hold on!
Now I think of it, maybe energy companies need to think about getting into the solar panel installation market. It seems like it would be a conflict of interests, but if solar really becomes the Next Big Thing, they’re going to need something to fall back on, quickly.