Just over 40 years ago, the idea that solar power could make the leap from powering satellites in space to powering the planet was the vision of only a few people brought together by the shock of the first oil embargo. Today, almost everyone sees solar panels on a daily basis. Electricity from Sunlight: Photovoltaic‐Systems Integration and Sustainability describes the journey from the sun’s use in earliest times to tomorrow’s continuum of recyclable materials employed in producing energy from a manufactured good, rather than by consuming Mother Earth’s resources. The exponential increase in applications powered by solar is shown to be directly tied to the predictable cost reduction experienced through economies of scale and continuous technology performance improvements. The book delivers insights that are both inspirational and quantitatively informative by thoroughly documenting many of the pathways for achieving scale that have been established upon foundations of science and experience proven over decades.

Electricity from Sunlight describes the quantification and consideration given to every dimension of the solar value chain: how feedstocks are prepared, how factories consistently operate, how manufacturing environmental health and safety is planned and audited, how life‐cycle benefits are quantified, and how our planet wins at the same time business wins. We now have an existence proof. It is possible to have sustainable development that is economically sustainable.

Sunlight is freely distributed across our planet. The combination of information technology with low‐cost solar technology has established the foundation for an irreversible growth connecting the dots between the supply of cost‐competitive electricity and the need for power everywhere. The book is a roadmap to understanding the cornerstones upon which an industry has been framed so that ideas for totally optimizing that early vision can be explored and accelerated to meet real‐world needs. Here in one place is the guidebook to a clean energy future.