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Nearly every state in the us has very viable solar. The blockers are not economic, but regulatory from the utility and utility commission side. There are small

Nearly every state in the us has very viable solar. The blockers are not economic, but regulatory from the utility and utility commission side. There are small solar arrays all over farms in Minnesota, for example. Solar is super cheap, and only getting cheaper. Cheap enough that one can start to size your array for the seasonal minimum. And as storage gets super cheap this decade, solar plus storage are a "baseload" combo.

throwaway4aday 4y ago
I'll believe this when I see successful startup utilities cropping up all over for the low capital investment of buying a field and filling it with solar panels. Hell, I'd settle for seeing the existing utility companies doing this en masse.
- epistasis 4y ago
  The barrier to this isn't economics, it's the regulatory process for utilities, which are often regulated to be monopolies. And for that matter, this sort of building of solar projects by small players has been going on for years, very successfully, under a PPA model. In places where it's allowed for startups to build new generation resources and get compensated on the market, such as Texas' ERCOT, solar is a dominant force. The challenge is not the tech, the challenge is that too many people are doing it, draining the supply chain: https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2022/07/satellite-data-shows-big-solar-installation-delays-in-texas/ https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2022/07/satellite-data...
vehemenz 4y ago
These are good points, but I would add that there are not qualified installers of solar in most areas. I'm not sure if you'd chalk that up to regulation or economics, but it's probably a little bit of both.
- epistasis 4y ago
  Yes, standard growing pains for an industry that is doubling in production roughly every four years. The rate at which the industry is scaling is absolutely amazing. But even as in the original post about electricians, skilled workforce labor remains one of the bottlenecks.

throwaway4aday 4y ago

I'll believe this when I see successful startup utilities cropping up all over for the low capital investment of buying a field and filling it with solar panels. Hell, I'd settle for seeing the existing utility companies doing this en masse.

epistasis 4y ago
The barrier to this isn't economics, it's the regulatory process for utilities, which are often regulated to be monopolies. And for that matter, this sort of building of solar projects by small players has been going on for years, very successfully, under a PPA model. In places where it's allowed for startups to build new generation resources and get compensated on the market, such as Texas' ERCOT, solar is a dominant force. The challenge is not the tech, the challenge is that too many people are doing it, draining the supply chain: https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2022/07/satellite-data-shows-big-solar-installation-delays-in-texas/ https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2022/07/satellite-data...

vehemenz 4y ago

These are good points, but I would add that there are not qualified installers of solar in most areas. I'm not sure if you'd chalk that up to regulation or economics, but it's probably a little bit of both.

epistasis 4y ago
Yes, standard growing pains for an industry that is doubling in production roughly every four years. The rate at which the industry is scaling is absolutely amazing. But even as in the original post about electricians, skilled workforce labor remains one of the bottlenecks.