Solar electricity (photovoltaics) was handed a big punch in the gut in 2005 when the Bush Administration negotiated the specifics of the Federal Energy Policy Act behind closed doors.
Previous to this law, homeowners in California were paid back for extra electricity they produced from renewable resources up to 99kW at their residential rates. This policy enacted in 1978 by CA's Warren-Alquist Act acted like a teeter-totter preventing utilities from raising residential rates in fear they would encourage more homeowners to install overcapacity of solar energy. Utilities could still make money since they sell this homeowner generated capacity to commercial and industrial entities at huge mark-ups at tiered rates, On-Peak, Semi-Peak, Off-Peak. Since solar energy is generated during the day when peak demand is high, it seems to perfectly dovetail the utility companies needs - but then again - utility companies want more profits from their monopolies to provide a public service.
Now residential customers who install too many solar panels get paid back at the wholesale rate, providing a dismally low rate of return.
This is a shame when one considers that wires carrying 100 or 200 watts into the home don't care if they carry that power out. Neither do transformers and switches and most other components in an electric grid. The only "components" that really care which way the electricity flows is the utility company executives.
Considering that the first solar panels for homes in the US were only 3% efficient, and that most solar panels sold to homes today max-out at 14% efficency (140 Watts per square meter) - and that there are technologies that may potentially reach 40% efficiency (lead-selenium quantum nano-dots) or even double that:
https://inlportal.inl.gov/portal/server.pt?open=514&objID=1269&mode=2&featurestory=DA_101047
it is bad national energy policy set by corporate influences through advertising, lobbyists and politicians that limit consumer alternatives.
Energy companies could be setting a course to manufacture fuels using this extra electricity form homeowners:
http://www.nndb.com/people/784/000100484/
and
http://www.coolplanetbiofuels.com/
or even other biofuel options
http://www.biotechniques.com/news/Venters-New-Hope-Synthetic-Algae-for-Biofuels/biotechniques-323264.html
Batteries and other electricity storage techniques have improved significantly over the past few years with the advent of hybrids and electric cars. More home made solar electricity will only help charge that industry further.
Fragile ecologies such as deserts can be spared from becoming just huge utility operated sources of centralized revenue where electricity is wasted pushing electrons into far away cities. (By conservative estimates 1/2 the electricity produced is lost on the grid - no matter how "smart" it becomes.) More efficient locally produced distributed energy cuts those "V=IR" loses significantly.
With increased emphasis (incentives) on home produced renewable power, homeowners could supplement their wages (stagnant since the 1980s in real $$) with real investments in rooftop solar, helping reduce the impact and duration of recessions. Also homeowners would be aware of the paycheck they receive form their solar investments, encouraging them to save energy, making the US a better example of how to make the planet more sustainable.
The number of solar panel installations in the United States skyrocketed to 742 megawatts in the second quarter, more than double from the same period last year, thanks largely to high demand in California and a strong utility market, according to the U.S. Solar Market Insight report by the Solar Energy Industries Association and the GTM Research.
In total, the U.S. now has 5.7 gigawatts of installed solar capacity, enough to power more than 940,000 households.
Installations varied greatly across states and markets. New Jersey, which analysts have warned for months would slow down, finally began to experience a correction.
Meanwhile, overall commercial installations fell 33 percent nationally from last quarter and residential remained flat. A downturn in the commercial market in California (down 45 percent) and New Jersey (down 35%) contributed a large part of a decline. However, these two states were not alone. Only 10 of the 24 states GTM Research tracks individually saw quarterly growth in the non-residential market in the second quarter, according to the report.
The jump in solar installations was largely driven by the utility industry, which had its best quarter on record with more than 20 projects completed totaling 477 megawatts. Eight states posted utility installations of 10 megawatts or greater. Not surprisingly California, Arizona and New Jersey were on that list. Other 10 MW and greater states included Nevada, Texas, Illinois, North Carolina and New Mexico.
Utility-scale concentrating solar power and concentrating solar photovoltaic installations continue to be added in the U.S. As of the end of the second quarter, there’s a cumulative of 546 MW of concentrating solar capacity operating in the U.S.
CSP plants use mirrors or lenses to concentrate sunlight on fluid-filled receiver tubes that heat up water to create steam and drive a turbine to power an electrical generator. Two CSP projects, the 100 MW Quartzsite project and the 100 MW Moapa Solar Energy Center were expedited last month as part of President Obama’s “We Can’t Wait Initiative.”
Meanwhile, Cogentrix’s CPV project, which is essentially a mashup of two common technologies: photovoltaic solar (PV) and concentrating solar thermal (CST), came online in the second quarter.
Photo: Brightsource Energy
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