With all the oil-related headlines we’re exposed to each day, you might assume that “black gold,” along with other fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, matter to humanity’s future. You’d be wrong. Like Keynesian economics and fiat currencies, fossil fuels are near the end of their run. From here on out, solar is the story.
The following chart shows the decline in the cost of solar power and the resulting surge in solar installations through 2015. The relationship is clear: as prices plunge demand surges — in both cases exponentially.
Pretty impressive, right? But nothing compared to what happened in 2016:
And here’s one more chart showing how China — that insanely polluted coal burning urban dystopia — is leading the way on solar:
This is shocking to people who A) are dependent on fossil fuels through work or investing or B) don’t understand the way exponential growth can change a market in an eye blink. So let’s hear from the father of exponential analysis, Google’s director of engineering Ray Kurzweil:
