The solar pie - big or small?

The International Energy Agency, known to be conservative on projections for renewable energy, has of late been toeing the clean energy line to address climate change and peak oil. In fact, the renewable energy head at IEA says we could get up to one third of our global energy supply from solar photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, and solar hot water by 2060!

That's no small leap considering solar constitutes a mere 3-4 percent of the global energy mix.

According to Paolo Frankl the strength of solar is the incredible variety and flexibility of applications, from small scale to big scale. Economic activity will shift toward the sunnier zones around the equator by 2050, making solar energy a viable power source for most of the global economy, quoted a Bloomberg report.

Those regions will be home to almost 80 percent of the human race by the middle of the century, compared with about 70 percent today, and their energy needs will be higher as living standards in countries such as Brazil and India approach those of the U.S. and Europe.

But as a climate change expert notes, these areas will be wilting under global warming making them unsuitable for habitation. So?

Ironically, the IEA in its World Energy Outlook published this year does not give solar much attention. The organization predicted fairly modest growth in the solar PV and CSP sector through 2035, with a projection that it would only make up 4.5% of electricity supply.

Perhaps one neds to read the difference between 'could' and 'would' in such discrepancies!