Solarization

In a recent article in Rolling Stone, Al Gore notes some good news with regards to climate change: Solar energy is being used more and more as generation costs decrease. Some countries are "skipping" the carbon-based part of energy generation as they go from burning wood and manure directly to installing and using solar cells for electricity.

(Yes, certainly, those are carbon-based energy forms. They don't release previously sequestered carbon dioxide, though, but only what was stored when the grass-which-became-manure and the trees were grown, in the recent past. They are carbon neutral over a short time period.)

There is actually quite a bit in there to mention. To start, Dick Morris, Bill Clinton, and Al Gore had all read Generations in the lead-up to the 1992 election. Dick Morris specifically mentions that Clinton choosing Gore as a way to solidify their appeal as a generational bloc. It seems at least possible that Gore is incorporating a generational perspective here.

One possible reason for the sudden drop in solar prices: Investment in solar companies by people who either thought it was important, or thought other people thought it was important. That Solar Bubble started in the early days of the 21st century as governments in Europe and elsewhere supported green energy.  When it popped, companies went bankrupt, investors lost money, but the equipment had been purchased and was available for reuse.

While this is speculative, it does seem likely that equipment for creating solar cells is very specific to that use, not easily repurposed. If so, anyone purchasing that equipment (at a discount) from bankrupt companies would have used it to create solar cells. If the price for the equipment was lower, the effective cost of creating the cells was lower, and the minimum sales price as well.

This can be tied together to note that simply having enough people willing to invest, in a sufficiently efficient market, can bring about change - even if those people lose money, on companies that can't manage to continue as going concerns.  The generational model gives a way in which that might happen - and might have happened in this case.