I really don't think solar will ever be more than a way to offset peak energy usage due to its intermittent nature. I mean, the sun only shines half the time.
I'd love to see a widely dispersed network of solar panels which achieve peak electricity production during times of peak demand. With current tax credits in place, this is economically viable now.
I think biofuels of some sort- from switchgrass or algae or the like- will ultimately provide our base fuel.
At this time, solar is good for small purpose built applications where a very small amount of energy is needed and there is no connection to a grid.
The problem with all weather dependent energy solutions is that you cannot depend on them. You still have to have a full fossil fueled or nuclear system for nighttime, or those days when the sun does not shine. So, the reality is that you end up with twice as much infrastructure operating inefficiently.
When you do the final math, I am not sure that you end up gaining much. It might work out like the ethanol craze.
Here in southwest Arizona we have both sun and wind, usually both at the same time. Solar and wind here and in most of the southwest United States could easily supply 90% of ALL our electrical needs. Capturing solar energy and wind for storage is already a well understood technology. Using molten salt or hydrogen or even compressed air is doable.
We could even consider turning off all those advertising lights that burn all night using up electrical energy now generated by burning coal. That's nuts...why do we do that? Nuclear is a technology whose time has passed except for some of the smaller units, but even with those you still have tons of very radio active material that has to be dealt with over thousands of years....that's as nuts as burning all night advertising lights. It's nuts and it always will be nuts.
It can be quite important and solar is likely to provide a significant share of the alternative energy production mix within a matter of decades.
EDIT: Time to edit for Virginia Wild's edification. Boy, is my life ever getting easier.
Usually, when a new technology is introduced, it is very expensive, but when economies of scale are introduced, cost goes down. Besides global warming, this is another good reason to develop solar power. And let's hope that the price of solar power goes down before the price of oil and gas explode.
Solar power does need a backup. It does not have to be nuclear or hydrocarbons. We could use batteries or make hydrogen.
Nevertheless, as long as renewables can only provide just some of the power, we need nuclear power. By the time we build enough solar farms and wind farms to replace half of the coal, we can also build enough nuclear power plants to replace the other half of the coal. A wind farm or a solar farm which is built to be a substitute for nuclear power is a wasted opportunity to build the same wind or solar farm as a substitute for coal.
Solar energy is the oldest energy on this planet and yet it has only just begun to be explored. After all the energy we have used via coal, oil and even wood has been sequestered from the sun. Photosynthesis is still a process to be unraveled. As our economies move from oil and coal the sustainable future will ultimately be the sun.
nuclear power is amazingly energy dense. you get a lot of bang for your buck. the storage and disposal of the resultant waste is a political issue, not a scientific issue. in an attempt to discredit nuc power; political lobbyists have played on ignorance and fear to regulate the crap out of the nuclear power industry. if we regulated coal, oil, and natural gas like we do nuc plants; we,d be burning our furniture for heat.
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