You’re missing the point. I worked on a project years ago that used incentives to drive PV installations when the ROI wasn’t great.
Basically a $50M in annual small scale solar incentives saved ratepayers something like $600M in excess capital costs because it reduced peak demand. For electricity, the hottest week of the summer costs more than the coldest month. The more you can maximize usage of the big power plants off peak, the lower your rates go and the more efficient you are.
Europe sees more of the sun than the US in summer, being on average further North. I am not sure about what you are trying to say. Completely agree about the general lack of AC, though.
Uh, there is a positively huge difference between, say, Sweden and Greece. Sweden has almost no AC, Im sure Greece has a lot. Also a silly difference in insolation during winter. Ive seen on http://app.electricitymap.org/ that Greece has had some VERY good days for solar production lately, like above 60% of installed capacity. I suspect the installed capacity is not updated with reality, or theyre very lucky. Sweden produces maybe a few % of the summer figures at the moment.
That lack of AC won't last much longer. I'm admittedly at about the same latitude as the most southern tip of Germany in Romania. I doubt I'll last more than another year in August without installing AC for all rooms.
Also ask the Greeks. Or Italians. Or the Spanish or southern France.
Incidentally, with this warm winter I'm paying more for heating than my largest heating bill ever, that happened in a -20 C month. And that with government capped heating prices.
We don’t have a silver bullet. I wish people would just understand this simple fact. Most of these pro-this or anti-that positions are purely ideological and without regards for actual facts.
The absolute priority and necessity is to get out of fossil fuels. Solar cannot be enough for Europe, and building large solar farms in most places is nonsense, but at the same time it needs to be developed where it does make sense.
Then for you too: have you been here? Yes, there are a few countries for which Solar will work, and more countries for which a massive Solar investment will never pay off. But you know what will? Wind and hydro. You know what's already been constantly getting invested in? Wind and hydro.
Being against renewables is completely nuts. Being against solar in places where solar is a dumb idea for most of the year, and we could spend the same money on better green alternatives is being perfectly sensible.
Build solar installations where there's a reliable amount of sun, for most of the year (and each country where that's the case already has solar projects going). And then understand that even if you do that, the benefit will be local rather than EU wide because there simply isn't enough Europe that matches that description for solar to be the only renewable you can think of.
Basically a $50M in annual small scale solar incentives saved ratepayers something like $600M in excess capital costs because it reduced peak demand. For electricity, the hottest week of the summer costs more than the coldest month. The more you can maximize usage of the big power plants off peak, the lower your rates go and the more efficient you are.
Being against solar is completely nuts.