A colleague loaned me a copy of Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs. I read half of it - the part I like.

In the early phases of the personal-computer revolution, eccentric personalities, unappreciated geniuses and long-shot gambles combine to make something from nothing. Long nights and long hair.

What is particularly engaging about the early phases of a new industry is the enthusiasm of its zealots and partisans. From the garages of California to the court martial of Billy Mitchell, stories of the persecution, perseverance and ultimate vindication of visionaries are compelling and deeply satisfying.

These stories do not always end well, as the tale of Nicola Tesla attests. New technologies are not guaranteed a place at the table by the inalienable right of their brilliance or even their arguable superiority on the merits.

“I’ve been in the solar business for more than 10 years,” people tell me. That’s a long time now. The early adopters are still producing new ideas and electricity. But they have been joined by a new generation of entrepreneurs and businesspeople, drawn by a combination of alluring technology, social responsibility and profit potential.

Like it or not, the solar early adopter party is over. Solar power is an industry now. Conferences and conventions have become trade shows and industry events. Holding companies are owners. Incentives are securitized. Public policy is debated. Intellectual property liabilities loom.

This is the point where I closed the Steve Jobs book. Not that I don’t find the rest of the story interesting - otherwise, I should find another line of work - but where it becomes real life, I look for something else to read. In real life, the solar sector has broken into the mainstream, and its dramas are played out in the trade press and, increasingly, the front pages of daily newspapers - tiffs and tariffs for all the world to see.

That’s good. It means solar has made it.

There is still plenty of room for vision and enterprise. At press time, Elon Musk’s SolarCity had just agreed to purchase Silevo and its high-efficiency Triex n-cell technology. I’m looking forward to solar on Mars.

There’s a book right there. S