Solar Energy -- Big Vs Small Scale

There is enough potential energy from the sun reaching our planet in one hour to generate all of our power needs for an entire year. Let's look into some of the issues about solar energy, the next great power source for the world.

When solar power is talked about there are usually two different groupings -- personal use on a small scale and large scale plans which are meant to replace coal, hydroelectric and nuclear power plants, which all have significant environmental problems.

While there are many significant solar power advantages, there are some instant problems with large-scale adoption of this green form of energy. Images of massive solar fields in the desert, their giant, shining panels glistening happily in the noon sun are inspiring, but there is a significant drawback to this kind of large-scale adoption of solar technology -- dissemination.

The energy produced at these solar arrays simply cannot be cost-effectively delivered to homes hundreds to thousands of miles away because a lot of the gain is lost in transmission. What's more, the transmission lines are incredibly expensive to maintain. Plus, new lines cost about $1.5 million per mile, making the dispersal of new transmission channels very costly.

Small-scale solar, however, enjoys none of those disadvantages. When placed close to the structures they power, solar panels lose almost none of the energy they produce. Small-scale solar also avoids the second problem as expensive transmission lines aren't necessary, since the energy is consumed at the source.

As the US is habituated with developing massive power plants, an alteration in focus is necessary to put the huge investment in solar power that's required to replace other forms of energy. Subsidies and tax break methodologies can take the place of the need for big projects, shifting necessary funds into the pockets of home and business owners, allowing them to set up their own DIY solar panels. Instead of hundreds of massive power plants, what's we need are hundreds of thousands of micro power generators. This change in priority is necessary if we're ever to shift to environmentally safe forms of power generation in the hopes of averting the growing possibility of climate change disaster.