Que?
Did I mention nuclear somewhere?
And you have my view on solar a bit twisted from reality. I have long said solar is not a one size fits all solution for the entire nation.
BUT. I have said that where local conditions permit I am a supporter of affordable solar on homes as part of a distributed grid that might someday move us away from the need for big power plants.
Another BUT is that an affordable power storage method must be developed for affordable solar, or affordable wind as appropriate for the local weather, to ever be part of a 24/7 power solution.
While solar on every roof top is not practical as previously mentioned, I do think a significant number of homes should have it if a few southern US states started mandating, where applicable, some form of solar hot water or PV solution as part of new construction building codes. Even a few hundred thousand modest solar hot water systems would produce a large reduction in power consumption.
Such a mandate would be a boon to the solar industry and should drive technology improvements, competition and eventually, hopefully, prices down with the higher volumes of sales. It would be a great opportunity to encourage local solar production through tax breaks to consumers if they buy Made in the USA. I say consumers to give companies an incentive to put out a good producut, but more importently to put the money directly in comsumers pockets and let them decide what company gets their business. Instead of the government picking what companies gets money without a proven product.
In addition, common sense net metering laws need to be created / strengthened to provide incentive for people to install home PV while not punishing the grid power providers who have to bridge the overnight gap in solar power until the storage requirement is met.
While the issue of renewable power is large in scope and lengthy to implement, the actual path to using more renewable power is not as difficult as many think.
It just takes a little thought and a lot of planning.
