Thomas Edison — "I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we …"
I'd put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don't have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.
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More from Thomas Edison
"There will be more women than men inventors in the future."
"I make more mistakes than anyone I know, and sooner or later, I patent them all."
"I am not a scientist. I am an inventor."
"The first thing is to find out what the world needs; then proceed to invent it."
"I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day."
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Edison is saying solar energy is the smartest long-term bet for humanity's power needs. He sees the sun as an almost limitless resource and worries that people will procrastinate, only switching to it once fossil fuels are depleted. His point is that society should develop solar technology proactively, while oil and coal are still abundant, rather than wait for a crisis to force the transition.
Relevance to Thomas Edison
Edison spent his life turning raw energy into practical technology, from the incandescent bulb to the first commercial power grid at Pearl Street Station in 1882. He personally experimented with storage batteries and alternative fuels, and in 1931 partnered with Ford and Firestone on solar research. Betting on the sun fits his pattern of chasing the next energy frontier rather than defending the one that made him rich.
The era
Edison spoke these words in 1931, near the end of his life, when coal powered industry and oil fueled the booming automobile age. The Great Depression was exposing the fragility of resource-dependent economies, and early photovoltaic experiments were decades from being practical. Most Americans viewed fossil fuels as endless, making his warning about depletion and his faith in solar energy strikingly ahead of mainstream thinking.
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