Energy 360: The Solar State
Tech breakthroughs are bringing solar power to the people, and rankling electric utilities. text by Patrick DiJusto illustrations by Raymond Biesinger
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It has been the “power source of the future” for at least the past 40 years. It’s one of the few things on which people agree across the entire political spectrum. And thanks to the development of more efficient and inexpensive solar panels and intelligent infrastructure like smart meters and inverters, it looks as though solar power’s time in the sun has finally arrived. The amount of solar photovoltaic power generated in the
United States has increased from 16,000 megawatt hours in 2007 to 15,874,000 in 2014. That thousandfold increase has caused electric utilities across the country to either panic or seriously rethink their business model. The chief reason for the disruption is that, unlike most other renewable sources of energy, solar can be controlled at the homeowner level. Lennar Corporation, a major American > SEPTEMBER 2015 DWELL
