A recent paper put out by the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center looked at which energy source was more reliable on a large scale, PV or wind, and they decided that:
"Due to the larger magnitude of solar PV power output fluctuations relative to those of wind at time scales shorter than approximately 31⁄2 hours, the costs of large scale solar PV integration are likely to be larger than those of wind."
So look for more utility owned wind farms when a national RPS is passed. But there will probably be many hybrid plants as wind blows (mainly) at night and the sun shines in the day
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Not saying that solar isn't important or can't be used on a large scale (just look at Arizona or Spain)
Harnessing solar power comes with great benefits.
However, with our technology, it becomes limited.
Posted by: plumbing | September 23, 2011 at 06:37 PM