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Solar Power Growth Is Multifaceted

Solar Power Growth Is Multifaceted

by Michael Silverstein and Kay Wood The U.S. is well behind some world leaders when it comes to solar generated electricity. Germany generates the most solar power per capita. In sun-baked Australia, one in 10 private homes has a PV (photovoltaic) unit on the roof. On these shores meanwhile, just a fraction (2 percent) of the 13 percent of electricity that comes from alternative energy sources comes directly from the sun. We are nonetheless beginning to move strongly (if belatedly) into generating electricity directly from the sun as the prices of PV cells have plummeted. Some of this generation enhances the grid. Some is distributed. The former feeds power into existing grids, the latter feeds power direct to end users, independent of a grid. The best-known solar grid feeders are huge installations in the deserts of California, Nevada and Arizona. These employ various thermal technologies to generate and store the energy produced. Utilities are also beginning to experiment with much smaller solar installations sited closer to grid transformers. Though their smaller size means such installations don’t have the economy of scale cost savings of a huge desert installation, their locations mean less power is lost in transmission over distances. Most distributed solar is now found on the roofs of individual homes or businesses. But it is also starting to involve small communities that make a pooled investment, with the investors’ homes deriving a share of electricity from what amounts to a small solar farm. Grid-linked or distributed. Big solar desert installations or much small ones near transformers. Individually owned or community owned solar power generating equipment. Solar power growth is multifaceted. And the U.S., which blew its chance to lead the world in this technology in years past, is at last beginning to catch up.

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Michael Silverstein is a long time environmental writer, and former senior editor at Bloomberg. Kay Wood is the author of an environmental graphic novel, The Big Belch.

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Get your copy of Kay Wood's The Big Belch graphic novel now! “... Kay Wood has authored a page-turner of a graphic novel called The Big Belch. She makes us laugh, and makes us cringe as she weaves a story about fossil-fuel addiction, big oil, and our love-hate relationship with gas guzzling cars and get-it-right now lifestyles. How will our baby boomer aged hero's and band of misfit characters survive The Big Belch? ...” — 350 Philadelphia

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