“Phil Warburg has invented a new literary genre: the clean energy travelogue. His trips to the places and characters behind the solar energy boom are brilliantly entertaining and informative. He has written the definitive guide to America’s solar transformation.”
— U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (ret.), former chair, House Energy and Commerce Committee
“Harness the Sun is an indispensable guide to the technologies that undergird an emerging solar revolution. It describes the businesses that will profit from it, the interests that will be disrupted by it, and the policies that could accelerate it. Phil Warburg does all this by wandering across the land, talking with workers and consumers and CEOs, and asking them exactly the questions that every intelligent open-minded reader would want to have answered. If you are intrigued by solar energy in concept but think it is a just a futuristic option, read this book today.”
— Denis Hayes, national coordinator of the first Earth Day, former director of the Solar Energy Research Institute
“Warburg’s graceful, diverse, wide-ranging, and well-balanced storytelling…. [is] a valuable service to a society rife with solar myths, many deliberately manufactured.” Harness the Sun is “an important and timely contribution to the public understanding of solar power.”
—Amory Lovins, chief scientist and chairman, Rocky Mountain Institute
“As an environmental scientist with more than thirty years’ experience, I applaud Philip Warburg for shining much-needed light on the renewable energy potential of contaminated lands. These sites can help expand our clean-energy capacity in places where industry has left a lot more than rust behind.”
— Deborah Sawyer, founder and CEO, Environmental Design International, Inc.
“Harness the Sun eloquently details the role that solar can—and must—play in our clean energy future.”
— Peter Lehner, executive director, Natural Resources Defense Council
“Harness the Sun… covers an exciting range of solar technologies, issues, locations, and opportunities, in a compelling, easy-to-read style that will have you wondering why we aren’t doing even more of this, and how you can get a piece of the action.”
— John Rogers, senior energy analyst, Union of Concerned Scientists
“Phil Warburg’s Harness the Sun ably captures the state of solar in the US, both its prospects and its challenges…. Solar enthusiasts will get hope and inspiration. For others, it’s a super-readable primer on the quickly evolving solar landscape.”
— Rob Sargent, energy program director, Environment America
“Which century do we choose to live in, the past or the future? Phil Warburg’s Harness the Sun makes a compelling case for the future.”
— George Bachrach, president, Environmental League of Massachusetts
“Anybody who pines for a saner, safer, and more rational US energy policy should read this book and take its message to heart. Harness the Sun shows that solar energy can start playing a much larger role in our national life than we ever imagined — and is already doing so…. I salute this book for its accuracy, eloquence, passion, and compelling vision.”
— Christopher Palmer, director, Center for Environmental Filmmaking, American University
“A clear and persuasive report… smoothly edifying.”
— Kirkus Review
