I have been reading some fascinating facts about Solar Power and how it is about to disrupt the current electricity generating and distribution network. Big companies are seriously looking at producing their own solar generated electricity instead of buying it from the grid.
And not just for “sunny” countries. The Copenhagen International School generates 300 MWh of electricity per year from solar panels, meeting over half of the school's energy needs. That is despite the fact that Copenhagen is 55° North, roughly the same latitude as Berwick Upon Tweed.
Battery storage allows solar energy to provide electricity for 24 hours a day. In vast areas of the world it is cheaper to generate electricity on site using solar arrays than it would be to supply, free to generate electricity, over a grid.
The United States could generate all its electricity requirements, using current solar panel technology, from an array 108 miles square, which is less than 0.1% of the desert in the US.
The price of solar panels is falling at a rate of knots and scale of manufacturing and technological innovation improves. Forget about electric cars, this is going to be a massive disruption.
