Review: Bill McKibben's "The Sun Is Having a Moment"

In his article for The New Yorker, titled "4.6 Billion Years On, the Sun Is Having a Moment", veteran environmental journalist and activist Bill McKibben captures a turning point in the story of solar power. With his characteristic clarity and urgency, McKibben highlights the astonishing rise of solar energy at a time when climate disruptions are becoming impossible to ignore.

Solar Energy's Tipping Point

McKibben's central thesis is straightforward: solar power, after decades of promise and uneven adoption, is finally arriving at scale. He notes that the world reached one terawatt of installed solar capacity in 2022, and installations are now accelerating at a stunning pace - with gigawatt-scale capacity being added each day globally. What once seemed like a fringe alternative has become a mainstream solution, now driven more by economic efficiency than environmental advocacy.

From Nixon to China: A Global Arc

The article places this boom in historical context, from President Nixon’s early (and largely symbolic) interest in solar power, to Germany’s aggressive subsidy-driven adoption in the early 2000s, and ultimately to China's industrial-scale production of affordable solar panels. That journey underscores a core strength of McKibben’s work: his ability to connect the policy dots across decades and continents.

Efficiency, Not Just Idealism

Beyond climate concern, McKibben stresses solar’s fundamental energy logic. Unlike fossil fuels that release energy as waste heat, solar produces electricity directly - making it better suited to our electrified world. As storage and grid integration improve, he suggests, this makes solar not just clean, but profoundly practical.

Rising Temperatures, Rising Support

McKibben's narrative is sharpened by the timing of record-breaking global heat events in June 2023. While climate news often feels like doomscrolling, McKibben uses this moment to offer a solution-oriented counterpoint: as the planet warms, the most powerful solution - the sun itself - is becoming more accessible. He also cites robust polling that reveals bipartisan support for solar energy in the U.S., challenging the narrative that climate solutions are politically divisive.

Critical Perspectives

While optimistic, McKibben’s piece only lightly touches on key challenges. Grid infrastructure remains a bottleneck, as do storage technologies and transmission build-out. He also skims over the environmental and geopolitical complexities of solar panel supply chains. These are real issues—but arguably beyond the intended scope of this particular article, which is more a narrative snapshot than a technical audit.

Conclusion: Hope from the Sky

In “The Sun Is Having a Moment,” McKibben blends data, history, and hopeful realism. At a time of widespread climate despair, his message is clear: the tools to turn things around aren’t science fiction - they're already on rooftops, in deserts, and scaling up around the globe. Solar power’s rise isn’t just a bright spot—it may be the lifeline. And after 4.6 billion years, the sun is, indeed, finally having its moment.

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