It think it scales for industry rather better than individual use. Panels are dirt cheap, the expensive part is mounting and power electronics, both of which benefit from economies of scale.

The main drawback is availability requiring battery packs. This also benefits from scale but is still expensive. One this industry can do that individuals cannot, is schedule energy intensive batch processes to times of peak production.

Reply to this note

Please Login to reply.

Discussion

Seems ugly and wasteful — if you ever see the giant solar farm outside of Vegas, for example. But some panels on a roof for home use is a no brainer IMO. And yeah, also the intermittent availability.

Ugly is a choice. We can do much better. We can also utilize the area beneath panels more wisely. Proper spacing could probably increase vegetation due to better water retention with shade.