The Switch: How solar, storage and new tech means cheap power for all
by Chris Goodall, 2016

Good up-to-date description of solar prices, technology, and potential. Covers the potential to get almost all of our power from the sun. Discusses the drawbacks and barriers, including what happens when the sun doesn’t shine. Batteries for short-term storage. An interesting idea that I hadn’t known about is power to gas for long term storage. Basically, use hydrolysis to generate hydrogen from water, and combine that with carbon-based molecules (either drawn from the air, see Climeworks, or captured from existing industry/power generation) to form energy-rich gases like methane. The gas can then be stored in existing infrastructure to be burned over dark winters in the northern parts of Europe and Canada where they don’t get enough sunlight to run entirely on solar power. Good read, with highlights of some early-stage companies trying to bring about a solar-powered future.