What is the biggest problem with solar? Real estate. So here's my new brilliant idea that will make me millions (of gigawats). A new form of electrical utility based on distributed generation and short distance delivery. So here's the pitch:
Lease from home owners and building owners roof top space wherein Solar PV cells are installed on leased roof space, the payment for the space will be in discounted energy rates, but the surplus energy will be distributed to the grid.
Prospective problems: Currently a pv array on your roof is too expensive to get a big enough array to fully power your own house, let alone surplus energy to share with the grid, but with the buying power of a utility (Publicly or privately owned) this problem can be overcome. PV arrays are notorious for being outdated quickly, but with a utility there can be a constant level of replacement and repair, and with this degree of investment technology will progress faster and the cells can be swapped out and updated more frequently.
What do you think? Are you ready to invest? Send me a note and I'll get us all started!
1 comment:
A guy tried something similar a while back. He offered to build water fountains for malls and office parks free of charge in exchange for the right to harvest all the coins from them. I don't know if he made a profit or not, but that's damn clever.
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What is the biggest problem with solar? Real estate.
I disagree. The biggest problem with solar is that it is not yet cheap enough to really compete with carbon fuels.
The "tipping point" will arrive when the capital cost of solar power falls below $1 per watt, roughly the cost of carbon power. We are not there yet. The best options today vary from $3 to $4 per watt - down from $100 in the late 1970s. -- link
The looming equilibrium is driving massive investments in PV technology. Hopefully, soon we won't need the large PV cells attached to huge substrates. People can coat their roofs, walls, fences, even windows with PV film.
As far as the investment goes, I think it'll work - until the equilibrium is reached, at which point people will just buy their own PV film and take credits directly from the utility company.
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