I called a Solar Company to come out to my house and quote me on a system a month ago. First of all it was the most unprofessional sales experience of my life, the man was quoting me on a more than $50,000 system but wouldn’t even email me a presentation or project specs!? But moving past my personal issues with the unprofessional nature of the industry at large, I think its time to say the quiet part out-loud, “Solar technology isn’t working for us”. Solar is not working en masse, not with the current technology we have. Run the numbers. The engineers telling the truth are saying this over and over again, and they are not wrong. This technology is fantasy land, at least right now.
Perhaps there is a reasonable argument for putting up solar arrays in places like Las Vegas, Phoenix, Hawaii, places that have an abundance of sunshine, year around. It’s not great technology but it’s much better and the numbers look more reasonable, still not as good as coal or gas-power plants, but Solar in those climates is working out Ok. Leave the sunshine states and few places where weather permits good solar output and you are left with the majority of the US that simply cannot function off of solar energy. Numbers don’t lie.
Maintenance. No one tells you about the maintenance involved with your Solar Array. A layer of dust starts to impede upon their performance but what about several months without any maintenance? How dramatically does that impede upon performance? Dramatically. The panels have to remain clean to perform the way they were intended. See if your sales rep. tells you about that? If you live somewhere with more extreme weather your maintenance costs will skyrocket.
Initial Cost. There is no way around it. Solar is expensive. It could easily take you 10 years to recoup just the initial cost of installation but that would not include any maintenance costs, repairs or replacement of broken/faulty panels. Even without the batteries these Solar Arrays aren’t cheap but add in the storage facilities and watch your costs soar!
Batteries are a Huge Problem. Reference the article I wrote about EVs (Electronic Vehicles). I explain the various problems with these Batteries. The cost is a massive problem by itself but to me, larger than the issue of return on investment, is the fact that these batteries ARE NOT SAFE AT ALL. They are basically incendiary devices that the local fire departments simply can not extinguish. See if any of your Solar Sales people will mention that little tid-bit? Batteries are not recyclable. Not in the long run.
Unsafe. The batteries explode, catch fire, electrocute unaware or uninformed people, etc. Suddenly regular everyday Americans are going into the energy production business with how much training? Just think it thru. This is a whole technology that is being installed right into your basement or somewhere else in your home. Does the average person understand how electricity actually works? No. That is why we have a highly-skilled, highly paid trade called, Electricians. What if the solar panels are on your rooftop? My Roof is 30 feet off the ground. I can’t imagine that fall while working on my panels.
Rather low ROI (return on investment). Even if you live in the desert, running the numbers over 10/20/30 years will reveal, it’s just not Great Technology. Not yet anyways. The time, the money, the replacement costs, the maintenance costs, etc. all must factor into the equation when running the numbers. And the simple fact of the matter is THERE IS MUCH BETTER TECHNOLOGY OUT THERE THAN SOLAR. And as much as the climatologists hate to admit it, Clean Coal still stands out among the rest as one of the best technologies we have to date for energy production.
SOLAR IS NOT GREEN. The most laughable delusion surrounding solar (and EVs) is that it is somehow Great for the creation!? Ha! That’s literally laughable. They simply do not know how to dispose of the batteries. They are reuse them, somewhat to extend their life but at some point in time they will use up all the material holding a charge and these batteries will have to be disposed of, only Where? And How? No one mentions this FACT ever when discussing your purchase of solar panels. At best your batteries will last 20 years. AT BEST. If you use them under perfect conditions and purchase the better batteries on the market. But then what? They will have to be replaced. And what to do with your old batteries? There is simply no plan for this right now!
Better Technology has Existed for a Long Time. Our society, our engineers and inventors know how to create energy. Remember Tesla? Where is all his discovery gone!? We have allowed foolish-politics and disinformation into our lives so much than we realize. They have hijacked narratives, plural and it’s difficult to know who is telling the truth. And it’s difficult because technology keeps changing. In many ways Analog was a better more stable and wiser technology than digital. Remember when our phones didn’t need to be plugged into the electrical outlet, or be charged? Analog had many many promising features but the world went digital. There are perhaps dozens of alternatives to Solar (or Wind for that matter) right now that our nation could be testing and pioneering but the “powers that be” want this Solar Delusion.
It Take Up a lot of Space. Like Wind Arrays, Solar Panels farms are popping up all over America and often on land that would be much better used for farming, ranching, etc. You want to convert a useless piece of land into a solar field, that makes a little more sense (still without solving the battery problem, etc.). They are doing this in deserts and a few other places with worthless pieces of property but they are also going into the energy business on our valuable and irreplaceable farmland. Something to consider.
Finally, China, Our #1 Adversary Dominates the Market. Worldwide no one comes close to the volume China is producing in solar panels and now they will dominate the battery market too. (Read our article about the Chinese Lithium Battery plant coming to Michigan!)
In Conclusion: parts of California, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Texas, Florida and Hawaii all have plenty of sunshine and might actually have a decent argument for solar but still have a massive problem ten-twenty years from now with those batteries. In my opinion it is still only an average technology even with The Sunshine States… The costs are still high and my biggest issue with the tech is that the problems with batteries are not solved - and quite frankly may never be. Not only are those batteries a hazard (incendiary bombs in your basement) but they are going to be a new problem on God’s earth once we have tens of thousands of them to dispose of. Maybe they will solve some of these problems down the road (but maybe not?) - in my opinion there are several other technologies that have far better merit for testing on the whole of society. I will write about that in articles to come. For now, for better or for worse, we are stuck with Clean Coal, Gas and Nuclear Powered Plants.
References:
I want to mention here how hard it is to find good articles explaining the drawbacks on Solar on Google. I am 100% certain Google is Pro-Solar and its search therefore is biased. Many of the articles I found titled "Disadvantages with Solar" actually end up supporting solar by the end of the article. But here are a few that bring up similar issues. My best source for this article was "Solar John". We who know him have called him that for years because he's been in the solar business for so long. I met him while we lived in Hawaii. He knows solar better than many of these people who wrote these biased articles. FYI, "Solar John" is getting out of the solar-industry for these reasons and more. Here's a few articles I found online - but even these aren't stating the full-truth and holding back the enormity of the problem with these batteries. Seems to me there is a concerted effort to control the narrative.