Comments on: Germany Moving Away from Solar Parks to Rooftop Schemes

By: wattleberry

wattleberry — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 09:09:00 +0000

I hope these will be combined PV and thermal where possible?

By: Albert Lahey

Albert Lahey — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 23:31:00 +0000

Been saying it for years, the amount of wasted space on our roof’s worldwide is staggering.

This is a vital tactic- It will provide Jobs, and more economic freedom in the future.

Cover every Roof in Solar Panels!

By: Anne

Anne — Sun, 24 Jun 2012 12:31:00 +0000

The most important advantage goes unmentioned: rooftop solar doesn’t eat up land. Land that could otherwise be left alone. Land we commonly refer to as ‘nature’.

I don’t see the cloud argument as very important. Even large solar power plants are in the 10’s of MW’s, and you need many of them to have a meaningful contribution. Those many plants are spread out over a large area and will benefit the same effect as the smaller rooftop installations.

By: Bob_Wallace

Bob_Wallace — Fri, 22 Jun 2012 22:12:00 +0000

Plus, by distributing panels over a wider area you can minimize the amount of new transmission needed. You might not need to build any at all.

It’s likely that much of the generated power would be utilized at the ‘neighborhood’ level. Any extra might not exceed what the local grid is designed to carry. If the grid was designed to “import” 100% of the neighborhood needs it would have no problem running 100% in the other direction and rooftop solar is unlikely to be installed at 2x local needs.