Page - 107 - in Water, Energy, and Environment - A Primer

It should also be noted that terrestrial use of PV is only beginning. An industry that started in 1973 in the US is today the vanguard of a rapidly unfolding global energy revolution that will replace fossil fuels with renewables and bring energy services to all portions of the globe. For example, in Africa, which has enormous solar energy resources, electrification will finally become possible for the hundreds of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa currently without access to electricity. Solar power generation at large scale is also likely to be critical tomitigatingglobal climate change. Finally, a word about PV’s distributive/decentralized nature and the challenge this presents to traditional electric utilities: this challenge arises from the fact that PV generation is often maximum at peak periods of electricity demand (e.g., when air conditioning drives the demand) when utilities are used to charging higher than average kWh prices. If this peak demand on the utility system is reduced by home- or business-generated electricity, then utility revenues will be adversely affected based on current utility business models. With increasing penetration of PV solar it seems clear that these business models will have to change. Based on historical experience, most utilities initially will resist this. German utilities faced this problem first because the German government introduced a feed-in-tariff (FiT) for PV in the 1990s, stimulating a massive deployment of PV in Germany. Today Germany leads the world in PV deployment with more than 40 GW installed. On very sunny summer days more than half of Germany’s electrical demand has been met by PV. When faced with this reality German utilities got into the PV business and are now even offering energy storage services to the German public. While a number of other countries are now offering FiTs to their citizens, the US federal government has not yet done so. Nevertheless, more than half of all US states are taking the lead in stimulating deployment of PV and other renewable Renewableenergy 107