Maybe the right (or the better) solution is grid scale wind with minimal storage and residential/commercial solar with some local storage. No grid-scale solar.
Why am I thinking this might be a better idea?
Well, for one thing, this, for the most part, virtually eliminates a huge portion of the materials requirements for solar installations. No concrete, except for ground mount systems like mine. From a deployment perspective, likely far less damaging to the environment all around. Going back to one of my calculations, full solar would require the area of 12 Hawaii's, while wind only 1 Hawaii.
Storage at home would also have to be nominal, just to smooth things out. Just one to three hours of storage would likely deal with most short term (24 hours) weather events nicely. Stuff like this (from my own system, due to rain and clouds):
Wind, combined with grid-scale storage, then become the steady and reliable backup power source. The power can come from hundreds, if not thousands of miles away. Grid-scale storage can be more localized or distributed and load-sharing across regions.
The point is to minimize the cost, material intensity, land damage and ecological impact of shifting to cleaner sources of power.
The next step would be to either have very generous tax credits for solar installation or fully subsidize it in some form. Whatever we were going to do for grid scale solar, we do to pay for residential scale solar.
One of the things that is very obvious just walking around my neighborhood is that lots of people feel no need whatsoever for solar. In a lot of cases it's retired couples of people who have very low energy footprints. Another situation is rental property. None of these cases inspire anyone to spend money on solar. That's lots of roofs, millions, tens of millions, not being utilized to contribute clean power to the grid.
This is where I see a better program in support of solar could do very well. In other words, what do we have to do to make it worth everyone's while to install solar on their roofs?
I think that's where I am with this today. Rooftop solar, installed as widely as possible. Perhaps with a small amount of local storage. Then plan on grid-scale wind with adequate storage for bulk reliable backup power 24/7/365. No grid solar.
Maybe the right (or the better) solution is grid scale wind with minimal storage and residential/commercial solar with some local storage. No grid-scale solar.
Why am I thinking this might be a better idea?
Well, for one thing, this, for the most part, virtually eliminates a huge portion of the materials requirements for solar installations. No concrete, except for ground mount systems like mine. From a deployment perspective, likely far less damaging to the environment all around. Going back to one of my calculations, full solar would require the area of 12 Hawaii's, while wind only 1 Hawaii.
Storage at home would also have to be nominal, just to smooth things out. Just one to three hours of storage would likely deal with most short term (24 hours) weather events nicely. Stuff like this (from my own system, due to rain and clouds):
https://i.imgur.com/breTHQd.png
Wind, combined with grid-scale storage, then become the steady and reliable backup power source. The power can come from hundreds, if not thousands of miles away. Grid-scale storage can be more localized or distributed and load-sharing across regions.
The point is to minimize the cost, material intensity, land damage and ecological impact of shifting to cleaner sources of power.
The next step would be to either have very generous tax credits for solar installation or fully subsidize it in some form. Whatever we were going to do for grid scale solar, we do to pay for residential scale solar.
One of the things that is very obvious just walking around my neighborhood is that lots of people feel no need whatsoever for solar. In a lot of cases it's retired couples of people who have very low energy footprints. Another situation is rental property. None of these cases inspire anyone to spend money on solar. That's lots of roofs, millions, tens of millions, not being utilized to contribute clean power to the grid.
This is where I see a better program in support of solar could do very well. In other words, what do we have to do to make it worth everyone's while to install solar on their roofs?
I think that's where I am with this today. Rooftop solar, installed as widely as possible. Perhaps with a small amount of local storage. Then plan on grid-scale wind with adequate storage for bulk reliable backup power 24/7/365. No grid solar.