A Solar Electricity Primer

Ultimately, the sun is the source of all our power. Even when you eat a hamburger or steak, the food energy in your meal comes from a cow that ate grass, which was able to grow because of the process known as photosynthesis.

Therein lies the rub; in most cases, we can't use make direct use of that solar energy. Power plants that run on photovoltaics - the silicon-based analogue to photosynthesis - can and do use that sunlight directly, however. And, contrary to its detractors solar electricity is becoming a viable alternative. Indeed, it must for our survival.

Now, realistically, solar energy power plants cannot be the entire solution. There are a number of problems to be overcome, not the least of which is location. What Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) describes as the "Saudi Arabia of Solar" is located primarily in the Southwest desert region of the U.S. While there are a few major population centers in this area (primarily Clark County, Nevada and the Phoenix Arizona metro region), the ideal locations for such facilities are far removed from the “grid,� meaning that massive engineering and infrastructure projects would be required.

Aside from funding issues on both the national and local government levels, such projects to provide solar electricity from centralized locations is simply not cost-effective. Such electricity would cost twice the national average on a per-kilowatt basis.

A major part of the solution is to make supply individual buildings and homes its own solar energy power plants. This has been done in Germany for many years though tax incentives and subsidies for property owners that enable these miniature facilities to pay for themselves in short order. The state of California is beginning to put such programs in place, but since the federal government of the U.S. consists largely of cowards and paid shills for the oil industry, it is unlikely that it will be instituted nationwide in the foreseeable future.

In the meantime, thin-film photovoltaics are bringing down the cost of solar electricity generation technology, making this more available to average property owners.

In this article Jonathon Blocker writes about

solar electricity and

solar energy power plants