For decades, we’ve been told the clean energy transition is waiting on better batteries, cheaper panels, or a technological breakthrough still over the horizon. It isn’t. The solar and wind technology we need already exists, already works, and is already cheaper than the alternatives. So why has the shift taken so long?
The Power Problem argues that the real obstacles were never technical — they’re political and economic, built and maintained by industries with a direct financial interest in delay. Drawing on 24 years teaching energy and sustainability, decades chairing a New Hampshire town’s energy committee, and his own hands-on retrofit and solar installation, Wes Golomb walks readers through the science, the history, and the money — and makes the case that the choices ahead belong not to Washington or corporate boardrooms, but to ordinary people, in their homes, their communities, and their votes.
Clear-eyed, well-evidenced, and written by a teacher who has spent a career making complex energy systems make sense, The Power Problem is both an urgent argument and a practical education in what comes next.
About the Author
Wes Golomb spent 24 years teaching environmental science and sustainable energy at Northern Essex Community College, and in 2006 launched the first Energy Services Technology degree program in the Northeast at Lakes Region Community College. He has chaired the Deerfield, NH Energy Committee since 2006, work that has saved the town nearly $1 million and — most recently — secured a $330,000 federal grant to bring solar power to the Deerfield town offices, with the system expected online by late fall 2026. He lives in Deerfield, New Hampshire, with his wife Laurie, and Buster the dog, in a home he retrofitted and powers with his own 5.6 kW solar array.