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Busting 7 Solar Power Myths

January 28, 2012 By Zachary Shahan 5 Comments

Britt Mauriss, an occasional writer here on CleanTechnica, had a great post yesterday on sister site Planetsave on 7 popular solar power myths,… and why they are myths. Check it out:

7 Home Solar Power Myths… Busted! (via Planetsave)

About Zachary Shahan

If you couldn't guess, I spend most of my time on CleanTechnica and Planetsave. I'm the director/editor of both sites and am a little obsessed with them and the topics they cover. I'm also Publishing Services Manager at Important Media, which means that I do everything I can to support other Important Media writers, editors, and directors (as well as the network as a whole) in the good work they are engaged in. You can also find my work on Scientific American, Reuters, Change.org, most of the sites in the Important Media network, & many other places. For more, or to connect, go to: zacharyshahan.com

alf

The article is about “home” solar power, which is “retail” power (i.e. it replaces power for which you would be paying a retail price), but then #7 is comparing it to the cost of coal and nuclear plants which is “wholesale” power. That seems like a key difference to me.
Also panels on your roof are providing the energy very close to where it is used (your house), but wholesale power from coal and nuclear plants has to be transmitted and distributed to you, which incurs significant losses.
And while I’m on the subject, in the future when your utility switches to time-of-day electricity pricing, you will notice that the power produced by your solar panels will be replacing some of the more expensive power from your utility.
And I suppose I should mention something about the cost of “externalities” in regards to coal and nuclear which causes it to be much more expensive than just the cost we pay to the utilities.
I could go on, but I really just wanted to mention the wholesale/retail power thing..

http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan

All great additional points. Mostly stuff I noted on our solar page. However, I think I need to add a TOD pricing section in there.

Cleve716

If I wait ten years, new technologies will be better, and I will be stuck with this old stuff

Kevin L

Did that stop you from buying your computer? At that rate you will never own any type of technology, car, etc. Funny thing about people – we spend tons of money on things that consistently lose value…but when a technology is proven to pay you back over a certain amount of time…we want to wait. Anyone else catching this???