Our civilization has three looming issues: water, housing, and energy. Energy is everything — how we move, how we heat and cool our homes, how we power our industries and our technology. Right now over 60% of US power comes from fossil fuels, and every time we burn them, we lose an energy source instantly and permanently. There is no recycling a barrel of oil.
Solar is different in two ways that matter. First, it's predictable — the sun comes up every single day, and panels last 25-30+ years. Second, it's circular — up to 95% of a panel's materials can be recycled into new panels. Like a Diet Coke can going back on the shelf. Every system we install buys our civilization time to develop even better solutions: longer-lasting batteries, more powerful panels, small modular reactors. That's why I left a chemical engineering career in oil and gas for this. I saw both sides. I picked the one that thinks forward.