Grand Technologies for Grand Energy Challenges: A Futuristic Scenario for Solar Energy in the Age of Information

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of solar energy systems as transformative grand technologies that could revolutionize energy management in the information age, moving beyond traditional climate change mitigation debates.

Contribution

It introduces a systemic perspective on solar energy as a grand technology, highlighting its unique role in future energy landscapes and policy considerations.

Findings

Solar energy systems differ fundamentally from current energy systems.

Grand technologies can reshape energy management in the information era.

Current climate policies are insufficient for future energy challenges.

Abstract

Instead of getting involved in either extremes of dispute around climate change as one of our grand challenges, we opened the space of potential policy responses from a systemic view and showed why current climate change mitigation policies are not successful as planned. Further, as a potential futuristic scenario, neither a projection nor a prediction, that attracts further discussions, we showed how solar based energy systems are different than other current energy systems and how we can conceive of them as grand technologies which dissolve the whole landscape of energy management in the age of information.