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Solar is making a substantial contribution/to heating in some
countries. In isolated locations, and on a small scale, it is also
contributing to electricity production, just as it does in satellites,
watches and calculators, where the cost is not a big consideration.
However, solar cells for large-scale economic electricity production are
still deemed to be far away.
Windmills certainly have a long tradition, but despite considerable
experimentation and promotion, wind power has not become economic and
does not yield the quantities we need. In addition both wind and solar
power raise system problems, namely that they may not be productive at
the time when the power is needed. They require systems for energy
storage, for which we now have no economically viable technology.
It is conceivable that one day in the future we will be able to
produce large quantities of electricity economically through large-scale
solar cells and other energy sources, such as nuclear fusion. It is
further within the realm of the possible that nuclear fission, oil and
coal all will one day be phased out as sources of electricity
generation. Indeed, most techniques are transient. For example, oil
burning, which plays such a crucial role today, has been used on a large
scale for only some 40 to years, and we can now see that the oil
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period will be finite. As of today the only realistic alternatives for
new large-scale electricity generation are coal and nuclear -- and hydro
and gas where they are available.