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According to a new analysis of data, last year solar was the “star performer” in terms of new electricity generation, as renewables once again outstripped fossil fuels.

April 21 2017, will go down as a significant day in the dying days of the fossil fuel era. For the first time since the renewable revolution in 1882, Britain went a full day without using dirty coal to generate electricity.

The renewable revolution is gathering apace according to new research. Last year was an “extraordinary” record year for the sector, with “the largest global capacity additions seen to date.”

Rather than promote the solar revolution in the US, the fossil fuel industry "is doing all that it can to stop its growth."

Last week, the British Prime Minster, David Cameron, flew to Aberdeen, the oil capital of the UK to announce £250 million emergency funding to “prop up the North Sea oil industry”; which is reeling badly from the low oil price.

What has become clear over the last few weeks is that the UK government is determined to decimate the UK’s fledgling solar industry, no matter the cost to jobs, families and the environment. And this is from a political party, the Conservatives, which normally prides itself on being pro-business.

Would you take it seriously if tobacco companies announced that smoking trends weren’t expected to change much over the next 30 years? And imagine then, that this is what governments used to make tobacco policy: “Forecasts show that people aren’t going to quit smoking, steady rates of smoking around the world are inevitable, so all anti-smoking policies will assume not much is going to change.”

As I write, Shell’s AGM is underway in the Dutch city of the Hague, where the company is facing intense criticism about its strategy to address climate change, its highly risky Arctic drilling and its carbon-intensive tar sands operations.

How about some good news for a change? The end of the dominance of the oil age could be sooner than you think.

German company Bosch, which owns a solar division, has blamed fracking for hurting demand for clean energy.