Bringing Solar to the Masses? Really?

Bringing solar to masses I envision is a bit different than described in the article: Bringing Solar to the Masses. I guess “mass” purchases of solar cells do require easier legislation but it is not as massive as it pretends to be.

In the case of Antecy bringing solar to masses this means making solar energy available to communities all over the world to start with. It is my opinion that the greatest progress in the field of solar energy and storage will not be booked so much in the Western-world where all of us are already provided with utilities. So the innovators should start looking at the tremendous potential that is out there, if we only would think a bit more out-of -box.

It is in the regions that are desolate and off-grid that need these application the most. If we are looking into production of energy for communities we should realize that “community” production should reflect much more than just lower energy bills. When a community is producing energy it should be able to consume it as well, as opposite to putting energy back into the grid.

As some maybe don’t know, price of the energy on the grid depends very much on the demand and supply at the moment. When energy is produced by “mass” and put into the energy-grid the energy will drop. When all of the mass does that, energy price can even become negative. This is when the grid is offering money for taking the energy. In future this could be the energy-storage companies. My somewhat limited knowledge of global economics tells me that energy-trading will then become more lucrative and as time passes will more resemble the financial markets. It is also imaginable that prices will be artificially held at a certain level so the consumer will not be aware of the price swings every single day.

My opinion is that community should consume the energy that it produces. This way both energy availability and energy independence could be reached for all communities.