Comments on: More utility-scale solar has been installed this year than all other forms of energy

By: Madlower

Madlower — Wed, 18 Jan 2023 10:01:17 +0000

In reply to Solarman.

They use the seia data. Which tracks their membership installs. Which gets most of it since most solar installers are members of the seia. They also get some data from utilities from their net metering types of programs.

Otherwise must home installs traditionally are just considered efficiency since they are a drop in the bucket.

It is too costly and cumbersome to bother to track it. It would cost millions to try and track it all. Money which could be used to install more solar. It is also pretty big brotherish and might step on privacy laws.

By: Michael Martin

Michael Martin — Thu, 10 Nov 2022 18:39:07 +0000

In reply to Solarman. right on, Solarman! Just like the IT transition to distributed computing (as evidenced by the computers/phones most of us use most of the time) the "drops" of distributed solar are forming the low-cost, reliable, clean river to power the planet! I concur with more data collection, analysis and reporting to get the more complete picture of solar's impact...and VALUE!

By: Solarman

Solarman — Tue, 08 Nov 2022 20:34:59 +0000

We must also keep in mind that FERC is quoting utility scale generation projects and it seems none of the Government’s reporting agencies is (really) keeping track of private building and residential solar PV and microgrid installs throughout the year. FERC, EIA and DOE seem to be focused on utility scale and not the overall aggregation of millions of 6kWp to 12kWp solar PV arrays on the roofs of homes across the U.S. and what the “aggregate” efficiency and energy savings these systems provide to the grid and local loading of the grid in any random community across the U.S.. Even groups like SEIA seem to be more concerned about utility scale programs and not so much about getting accurate aggregate changes in the grid from individual solar PV systems on homes. The 2016 Lidar study by NREL found 67.x million viable solar PV roofs in the U.S., this didn’t seem to be broken down into actual square feet of viable solar PV area from these 67 million roofs. It could well be that a specific percentage of these roofs were capable of 100kWp to 2MWp solar PV arrays. The Lidar would not have caught a couple of acres of parking space around these large commercial and industrial buildings either. (IF) one put 8.5kWp on 67 million roofs, representing about, 500 to 530 square feet of array and using a conservative 4 sun hours a day on average, one can generate right at 2.3TWh of electricity a day. (IF) these 67 million viable solar PV arrays were to store 20kWh/day, then one would have, on average, 1.3TWh/day of energy storage to use at night on these same 67 million viable solar PV buildings. Now what is the actual efficiency savings for having 67 million solar PV roofs and on site ESS, compared to the amount of centralized solar PV and wind generation farms needed to supply the same energy to these same buildings?

The individual consumer is like a drop of rain. The drops begin a small flow that creates the stream, that flows into the river and down the rivers to create an ocean of drops to make a sea. What (WE DO) matters, just as what (WE DON’T DO) matters in the flow of change.