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When you drive through California, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico it's surprising that not every house has solar plants and the deserts isn't full of large solar

When you drive through California, Arizona, Utah and New Mexico it's surprising that not every house has solar plants and the deserts isn't full of large solar plants. If there ever has been an area that's perfect for solar, it's the southwest of the US.

whimsicalism 2y ago
Because of a lack of transmission lines and storage.
- pfdietz 2y ago
  Or, because it's much cheaper per watt to put PV in large utility-scale fields than on millions of fiddly roofs.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 2y ago
    Bingo!
throwup238 2y ago
Renters won’t pay for solar panels the landlord gets to keep and the landlords don’t pay the power bills so they don’t care.
- aendruk 2y ago
  Seattle has a program to reimburse landlords for installing EV chargers. Used EVs are affordable now so I asked my landlord to take advantage of the program; it sounds like a win for everyone. They couldn’t be bothered.
- blackoil 2y ago
  Shouldn't rent increase proportionally to savings on electricity bill?
  - Sohcahtoa82 2y ago
    I wince at the implications of this question. I often accuse landlords of being financial vampires, sucking as much money from their tenants as they can. This is just more evidence of it.
- AnimalMuppet 2y ago
  If renters pay the power bills, then renters should in fact care about solar, in a way that a landlord can charge more for.
boc 2y ago
The issue is that solar is produced when energy is cheapest during the day, and during the night when everyone returns home energy surges.[1] This means that the grid has to include non-solar backup generation that can exceed the peak generation of all the solar on the grid. The real breakthrough for solar will have to come from energy storage advancements, such as cheap neighborhood-scale batteries. This will allow the energy created during the day by solar to be used at night when demand peaks. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_curve
- PaulHoule 2y ago
  Transmission in space is important too. It is a long haul to the demand center of Southern California and it may make sense to build closer and not have to build new power lines which take about as long as a nuclear power plant.
- otherme123 2y ago
  Energy is cheapest during the day because solar is producing. In my country what happened is that hidro now works as a "battery": it's not used while the sun shines compared to what happened ten years ago, and it enters the grid inbthe afternoon. Despite not being connected like reversible dams, it allows the regular dams to save water and work paired.

whimsicalism 2y ago

Because of a lack of transmission lines and storage.

pfdietz 2y ago
Or, because it's much cheaper per watt to put PV in large utility-scale fields than on millions of fiddly roofs.
- PaulDavisThe1st 2y ago
  Bingo!

throwup238 2y ago

Renters won’t pay for solar panels the landlord gets to keep and the landlords don’t pay the power bills so they don’t care.

aendruk 2y ago
Seattle has a program to reimburse landlords for installing EV chargers. Used EVs are affordable now so I asked my landlord to take advantage of the program; it sounds like a win for everyone. They couldn’t be bothered.
blackoil 2y ago
Shouldn't rent increase proportionally to savings on electricity bill?
- Sohcahtoa82 2y ago
  I wince at the implications of this question. I often accuse landlords of being financial vampires, sucking as much money from their tenants as they can. This is just more evidence of it.
AnimalMuppet 2y ago
If renters pay the power bills, then renters should in fact care about solar, in a way that a landlord can charge more for.

boc 2y ago

The issue is that solar is produced when energy is cheapest during the day, and during the night when everyone returns home energy surges.[1] This means that the grid has to include non-solar backup generation that can exceed the peak generation of all the solar on the grid. The real breakthrough for solar will have to come from energy storage advancements, such as cheap neighborhood-scale batteries. This will allow the energy created during the day by solar to be used at night when demand peaks. [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_curve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_curve

PaulHoule 2y ago
Transmission in space is important too. It is a long haul to the demand center of Southern California and it may make sense to build closer and not have to build new power lines which take about as long as a nuclear power plant.
otherme123 2y ago
Energy is cheapest during the day because solar is producing. In my country what happened is that hidro now works as a "battery": it's not used while the sun shines compared to what happened ten years ago, and it enters the grid inbthe afternoon. Despite not being connected like reversible dams, it allows the regular dams to save water and work paired.