You still need the conventional energy base. You cannot have a grid reliant on solar, because sometimes the sun doesn't shine for days on end.
Solar can top up the grid, and correlates well with air-conditioning driven demand on hot days. But it doesn't coincide with peak load - especially in winter - and will always be a diffuse power source.
You would not only need a cost effective storage solution (and none is in the foreseeable solution) you also need a lot of available space. Even if the panels were virtually free - there still remains large problems with solar power as a baseload energy source. If you solved the storage problem - cheaply - you'd still need 4 - 5 times the collecting capacity to get close to being able to reliably produce power over even a 48 hour period.
It's a great boutique energy solution, particularly for remote usage. But large scale electricity generation will remain the dominant energy source well into the foreseeable future.
Comments
You still need the conventional energy base. You cannot have a grid reliant on solar, because sometimes the sun doesn't shine for days on end.
Solar can top up the grid, and correlates well with air-conditioning driven demand on hot days. But it doesn't coincide with peak load - especially in winter - and will always be a diffuse power source.
You would not only need a cost effective storage solution (and none is in the foreseeable solution) you also need a lot of available space. Even if the panels were virtually free - there still remains large problems with solar power as a baseload energy source. If you solved the storage problem - cheaply - you'd still need 4 - 5 times the collecting capacity to get close to being able to reliably produce power over even a 48 hour period.
It's a great boutique energy solution, particularly for remote usage. But large scale electricity generation will remain the dominant energy source well into the foreseeable future.