Another Government boondoggle
1) not worth installing w out subsidies so is nnsustainable
2) each system is proprietary so buying parts later will be a mess. Many of the companies are already bankrupt and no one makes their repair parts.
3) these systems are now owned by people who know nothing of what to do if something goes wrong.
4). These systems will wear out and need maintenance ... Besides finding parts it will be difficult to find technitions that know each system
5). And the worst ... Idiot power companies who are all full of green ($) joy at not having to invest in their own generation will one by one see these systems colapse.
You only need look at the solar water heater programs from a few years ago .... All the greenies were wetting their pants w joy and almost none of the systems are still in use. Worse, people had to pay to have them removed w no subsidy... Add to the land fill freebies hate so much.
Last) we are not building power generation plants and what were a few promising technologies like point of use turbine generators wasn’t on the favored list picked by the stupid people who run government and power companies.
We recently spent $30,000 to re-roof our house (it’s a large,complicated roofing job - we had two estimates that were $60K+). The contract for the roofing job had a clause that installing solar panels voids the warranty. So even if the panels were cost effective (which they’re not), I’m not letting some poorly trained installer put holes in my roof.
We live in Western NY and put in a solar water heater system 33 years ago when we put an addition on our house. It was a custom job. The tank was plywood and fiberglass. We have used it all these years to preheat our hot water, provide underfloor heating to our addition and kitchen, and to heat our swimming pool. Last year the tank sprung a leak and we were able to find someone to replace it with a much better tank, and this year he is going to replace some parts on the panels. I think it has not only saved us money over the years, but more importantly, made life much more comfortable.
These days people are trained at community college to handle all kinds of solar systems. There are many options for parts. It is not a problem to find someone who knows how to deal with these things.
The problem with producing power directly is that then you start dealing with bureaucracies that don’t want to give up the power or money.