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Hot Question: How Big Should Solar Get?

Big solar is coming. Is that a good thing?

California is pushing ahead with up to 80 large-scale solar-power projects as part of its push to use more renewable energy. Florida is right behind, and other parts of the country—like the Tennessee Valley Authority—are also pushing for more large-scale renewable energy.


A burning question (AP)

The upside to putting clean energy at “utility scale” is that it makes the economics more attractive—the technology most likely to be in the vanguard of California’s push, concentrated solar power, is cheaper than its silicon-panel cousin. Plus, it can provide a more constant source of power than many other renewable-energy sources, leading many advocates to call it “solar baseload” power, meaning it could provide the backbone of the nation’s power supply.

The downside, as the L.A. Times notes today, is that big solar—like big wind—has a big footprint:

Solar plants require staggering amounts of land, which could threaten fragile ecosystems and mar the stark beauty of America’s deserts. And in contrast to rooftop panels, which enable homeowners to pursue energy independence, these centralized facilities keep consumers tethered to utility companies.

The big-solar push raises an intriguing question: If the country is going to overhaul the way it generates power, why shouldn’t it also overhaul the way that power is distributed?

Big solar plantations, like big wind farms, represent only a partial change on the present system. They are still centralized sources of power in remote locations that require huge, expensive transmission networks to bring power to houses and businesses. That transmission hurdle alone is one of the biggest obstacles to wide-scale deployment of clean energy in the U.S. (NEI Nuclear Notes offers a graphic idea of different energy footprints.)

What about putting power sources at homes and businesses? That’s the idea behind California’s other solar-energy push, a spate of rooftop installations of the more expensive solar panels. While it costs more, boosters point to one crucial difference with big solar—instead of using up potentially valuable land, small-scale power turns “barren” space like factory rooftops into something valuable.

Plenty of energy thinkers like Jeremy Rifkin have been pushing the idea of “distributed power” in Europe for years, drawing comparisons with the IT revolution from mainframe computers to lots of networked personal computers. The idea is to ditch old-energy fuels and old-energy architecture at the same time.

Big solar’s arrival promises to make renewable energy more viable in the U.S. But it might also spark a debate over the best way to use all that clean energy.

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