Every year millions of books are released throughout the world, but not all come from a sheer necessity.  The Sunshine Revolution did.  Written by Harald Rostvik, Norway’s sunshine ambassador to the world, it is an exhaustive text and picture collection on solar energy. 

The Sunshine Revolution was officially launched in India, jointly by Development Alternatives and NROAD on the 11th February at the India International Centre, New Delhi.

It was released by the Norwegian Ambassador, H.E. Mr. Jon Atle Gaarder, who said that the more we consider the depletion of non-renewable resources, and the more we take into account the impact on the environment of the use of these resources, the more we understand the vital value of solar energy as an alternative for the future.

That this book should be launched in New Delhi and not in New York or Tokyo, according to Harald is logical because India is among the sunniest regions of the world and has vast untapped solar resources.

If there is indeed a ‘time and place for everything under the sun’, then this great country with its legendary Indian summers and sun-drenched winters must be at the forefront of the solar energy scenario within this century.

In summing up the discussion, Ashok Khosla of Development Alternatives said that “The cost of solar energy devices, and therefore the barriers to their adoption on a large scale, can only come down through economics of scale in production and marketing not he one hand and development through innovation of more efficient devices on the other.  Both approaches require initial funding support from public sources”.

“Development countries, which have the funds and the research infrastructure, don’t have the sun.  Solar energy research has therefore been of low priority there.  Developing countries, mostly in tropics, have the sun but not the money or the facilities for sophisticated technical innovation.  The trend of Northern solar energy programmes in recent years cannot lead one to hope for a substantial change in their priorities.  The solution probably less in massive support form international funding agencies to build innovation capabilities of and in developing countries”, he added.  If we are to succeed in bringing about a radical change in our energy policies to end-use efficiencies and innovative supply-technologies of renewable energy, then we must do so on a time-scale that is more than tight.  Amulya Reddy, India’s eminent energy expert, sums it up neatly: “It is going to be extremely difficult to implement the measures we propose, but not more difficult than continuing with the present which is impossible”.

Harald Rostvik’s book shows that within the next five, the market for solar cells in third World villages will double and perhaps even quadruple.  Once the market gets going, and a take-off point is reached, market economics will have a reinforcing effect - manufacturing costs will fall, the efficiency of and output from cells will rise and the prices per installed watt will be halved.  Solar energy can then become a colossal market.

But this requires political will at the highest levels, first in the developed world and then in the developing world, to reorient our energy policy.  Future investment and technology choices in this sector will have to be quite different.

It is abundantly clear that it is in the energy arena that the most urgent, insistent pressure for change is needed, because governments and public utilities will not act on their own.  The energy tradition and societies’ institutional arrangements particularly in industrial countries, are impeding the process of change.  If the developed world continues to model itself on these traditional lines, our ‘life-support systems’ will ultimately irrevocably break down.  The choice is ours.

In the light of this scenario, Herald Rostvik’s book is timely.  More than this, it is visionary and upbeat.  He strikes the right note, combines it with hard data and a lucid presentation, to silence the skeptics and encourage the faint hearted.  It is the necessary nudge in the right direction and at the right time.

We urgently need to usher in a kind of ‘Sunshine-Era’, if we are to save ourselves, for the Earth is most surely in trouble.  Launching the Sunshine Revolution’ alone will not save the planet but it will definitely help build awareness and the possibility of a better future.

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