Solar energy has emerged as the wave of the present for replacing dwindling fossil fuels as the primary source of the world's energy needs, writes fund manager and former corporate buyout expert Travis Bradford.

That is happening, Bradford says in his new book, "Solar Revolution," because it has proved to be cost-effective.

The president and founder of the Cambridge, Mass.-based Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development says we are on the doorstep of the solar era. He's not forecasting something that will occur in the next century. Bradford offers the evidence of a trend that is well under way and that will gain relentless momentum within the next two decades.

"Solar millionaires and billionaires will emerge, and markets may even experience a bubble or two of speculative excitement. However, in the end - undoubtedly within our lifetime - we will arrive at a world that is safer, cleaner, and wealthier for industrialized economies and developing ones and in which solar energy will play a dominant role in meeting our collective energy needs," Bradford writes.

Although that process could be expedited by more government incentives for the promotion of solar energy use and disincentives for investment in fossil fuels and nuclear power, the inevitable dominance of solar will not depend on government assistance, Bradford writes.

"Many people both inside and outside government are promoting renewable energy, but the belief that a renewable-energy economy will not happen without greater government support - as environmentalists too often argue - is wrong.

"The shift will happen in years rather than decades and will occur because of fundamental economics," Bradford writes.

Despite his argument for the inevitable dominance of solar energy, Bradford acknowledges that the world's energy needs will continue to be met by a variety of energy sources, including fossil fuels, nuclear and renewable alternatives.

By Cecil Johnson McClatchy Newspapers

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