Summary

Chapter 6, “Solar Power,” goes more in-depth into the potential and challenges of one of the most popular alternatives to fossil fuels. Muller says few people actually accurately understand the potential of solar power. He suggests that most people think that it will be either useless, or much more useful than it actually is, but that the reality is somewhere in the middle. “Solar Power,” is divided into four subsections.

In “An Anecdote,” Muller tells the story of a former student of his who debated a physicist at a dinner party and managed to change his mind. After the man claimed that nuclear power was the only possible replacement for fossil fuels, the student, Liz, stood up for the potential of solar power. She argued that a square kilometer of solar panels could produce a gigawatt of energy, as much as a standard...