Solar doesn’t need a “breakthrough”. It’s a breakthrough on it’s own.

Yesterday, Tyler Cowan, who I’m a major fan of, wrote a piece for Bloomberg View arguing that solar needs more R&D for a true green energy breakthrough.

This logic mirrors that of Bill Gates, the Breakthrough Institute, and others who, over the years, have argued that solar (and batteries and wind power) simply won’t get cheap enough or effective enough without some additional R&D push.

I believe additional R&D in clean energy would be highly valuable, and it’s foolish that we invest so little. At the same time, the line of argument that an “energy miracle” or sudden “breakthrough” is necessary to scale green energy doesn’t fit the data showing the incredible price decline seen in these technologies over the last few decades.

Below are my responses to Tyler, in tweet form.  Enjoy.