nixxie

Electrical PE here. Any experience with electrical failures in conjunction with seismic events? I've wondered what kinds of damage from faults might occur during an earthquake, before circuits can be interrupted. (Or other structural failures from tornados, hurricanes, etc.).

I just graduated with a degree related to solar design. I'll give you what I know about this problem.

First of all, on an annual basis, Germany's capacity factor for solar irradiation is actually equal to that of Alaska, making their solar resource worse than Seattle's. That really doesn't matter much because the sun is such an incredibly powerful resource. You're exactly right when you say that Germany has put a great deal of effort into using their solar resource. They have many incentives and rebates to encourage people to invest in solar technologies. The problem in the US is that energy is CHEAP, and the up front cost of solar collectors is prohibitive. It doesn't make sense, economically, for a household to invest in a system that is projected to take 30 years to pack itself back.

How we can make solar power work:

1) Energy becomes more expensive for consumers. This could be through taxes, but it will also happen over time as energy costs inflate.

2) Increase incentives. The US federal government offers a 30% tax credit on installed solar energy systems, but this alone isn't enough in some areas where energy is so damn cheap. And some states, like Pennsylvania, are moving backwards and cutting their solar incentive programs.

3) Solar technology becomes less expensive. Except in cases such as satellites, solar panel efficiency isn't so important. If we can push to discover ways to make them less expensive to purchase and install, then it doesn't matter if you believe in global warming, consumers will want to install solar collectors to save money.

Eventually it will work in America, I really believe in that. Right now, though, our energy sector is run by coal and gas producers. We need to get past the stigma of investing in solar technology. The sun is not weak, don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

I'm sorry your question was ignored. I'd say to you that buildings use 40% of our overall energy in America. It's my (very biased) opinion that we need more well-educated architectural engineers to optimize building energy use. There are many new computer tools emerging to help achieve this, but the industry is still run by people designing by rules of thumb and charting methods.