From Washington Post
[I ask this question because the Newtown Environmental Advisory Council (EAC) is considering proposing solar panels be installed on the roof of the administration building to supply its electricity needs. Read “#NewtownPA EAC Updates BOS on Plans for Single-Use Plastics Ban and Use of Solar to Power Municipal Building”; https://sco.lt/7RWDVw The options are a large solar array – see image – or panels on the roof of the admin building. Read EAC’s “Solar Power for Newtown FAQs” ]
Over the past decade, millions of solar panels have been installed on homes from California to Massachusetts. These solar panels allow their owners to cut down on their bills, pull electricity directly from their rooftops, and sometimes even store it in home batteries to use later in the day.
But are those solar panels the best way to reduce fossil fuel emissions?
Researchers argue that home solar panels are raising the price of electricity and reducing the need for cheaper large solar farms — making the entire transition to clean energy more expensive. And as more and more homeowners turn to solar, thanks in part to more generous government incentives, that could actually make it harder for the United States to meet its overall climate goals.
Jesse Jenkins, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, said that rooftop solar is an example of the “crises and mismatches” that occur when electricity is billed in the wrong ways. “Some people are going to pay more than they should, and some people are going to pay less than they should,” he said. “It’s going to cause unnecessary costs.”
… solar on peoples’ homes is partly competing with large solar farms run by utilities. “I call it a ‘solar-shaped hole’ in the electricity grid,” Jenkins said. “The more rooftop solar you have, the less valuable utility-scale solar is.”
At some level, that’s not a big problem: As long as there are solar panels producing power, why does it matter whether they come from a big farm in the desert or the rooftop of a suburban home?
But rooftop solar costs much more than a giant solar farm. Installing solar panels on the roof of a house or apartment building will cost a homeowner around $4.20 per watt before tax breaks and incentives — while installing them in a large solar farm costs closer to $1.16 per watt.
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