Why is that? I posted some articles earlier in this thread about how large projects that were previously supposed to be solar thermal were going PV (because of falling panel prices). But if we're going PV, why favor not local and distributed over remote and concentrated? Must be plenty of real estate available on residential and factory roofs.
Yep, I think that covers it well. In short: cheaper real estate on roof tops doesn't offset the higher installation cost and the long-term control issues.
Except that it's not the same. 1. Large PV plants don't just go offline because of a cloud. Output will be reduced by a fraction of it's capacity. 2. The larger the plant is, the lower the effect of clouds thanks to it's large foot print. 3. There are forecasting tools available that can let one plan ahead for cloud cover.
Yes, but luckily this is as predictable as watching the sun rise.
East/west facing PV simply shifts production earlier/later trading off an increase in ramp rate in the morning or evening for a decrease in ramp rate for the opposite time of day. Adding more of both ends up making the ramp rate higher, not lower, while lowering overall efficiency.
Rooftop installs have the drawback of being slightly different for each situation which increases costs slightly compared to large ground-mount installs. Although rooftop installations are the way to go for a number reasons - wider distribution which reduces variability, tends to place production closer to where the energy is used reducing transmission losses, reduces HVAC load on the building it's placed on, very little chance of adverse environmental affects that can arise from ground-mount installs, permitting process is generally much quicker/easier.
Of course EVs are unpatriotic -- they steal jobs from the military, because we won't have to fight meaningless, decade-long wars to protect our oil supply.Too bad so many who think they are "patriots" are anti solar/EV
