Can Solar Rooftops Power the World?

What dual use solar implementations pique your interest? Secure your privacy with Surfshark! Enter coupon code UNDECIDED for an extra 4 months free at surfshark.deals/undecided If you liked this, check out Why This Window Heat Pump Is Genius https://youtu.be/KNlDu_ZHIo8?list=PLnTSM-ORSgi7uzySCXq8VXhodHB5B5OiQ

I live in South Australia. We had massive government feed in incentives 10+ years ago to get people to adopt rooftop solar. It has worked great for our state with some days over 100% of our power coming from renewables.... South Australia has made significant strides in renewable energy, with solar power playing a substantial role. As of recent reports, solar power contributes significantly to the state's electricity grid. For instance, rooftop solar alone can supply up to 26.3% of South Australia's energy needs during peak production times, sometimes accounting for as much as 92% of local demand during the day. In total, South Australia has around 2 gigawatts (GW) of solar PV generating capacity, which includes both rooftop and large-scale solar installations. The state's efforts have led to remarkable achievements, such as a continuous period where wind and solar met 100% of local electricity demand for over 10 days. This impressive integration of solar power into the grid has positioned South Australia as a leader in renewable energy adoption in Australia and globally.

If not roof tops, just cover the open car parks :)

My rooftop solar was far easier to get setup than I expected. My condition's aren't ideal and I can't cover 100% of my power usage every day, but it does certainly offset the majority of my usage. The main restriction for me was the shape of my roof doesn't really lend itself to a very large array.

In Southern California some forward looking businesses like Kaiser Permanente cover their parking lots with solar. This is fantastic because not only are they getting dual use out of land, the shade keeps cars cool. I think parking lot solar should be everywhere.

Here in Australia we have the highest uptake of domestic solar panels in the world. One thing that is becoming more evident is that to make the most of domestic solar they need to be coupled with batteries, wether owned by the household or a local community battery. There is also a lot of work to be done on the regulations around feeding power from the panels and batteries into the grid. There is a lot of evidence that agri-solar combinations have great benefits in a hot dry country like Aus

an option especially for north america: solar cell covered open parking lots. they are already easily accessible, people want to park in the shade, EV-drivers want to charge their cars. another overlooked area: the grassy areas between runways on larger airports. sure, if there is a bad runway excursion, the panes will be broken, but these things happen rarely. honestly, if everything is done correctly, there will be enough solar energy production, that it is somewhat sufficiant during winter times. which means, during summer, it's way too much, might attract businesses, that are so energy hungry, that even running for half a year on very cheap solar power, and shutting off during expensive times, could be economically viable.

I love solar and renewables. But I'll never understand using good farm able land when we have roof tops and ugly parking lots everywhere. Every large parking lot should be required to have solar installed over top of it in the US. The cars get covered parking, and we get electricity. It's a win win.

Here in The Netherlands providers are now charging people for overproduction of solar which is fed back into the grid, because we have so much solar. The grid, which is very modern, can't handle the amount of extra power on those days. For a long time people were paid for overproduction. A drastic change and every new home today is built with solar included.

The energy hitting my roof right now is not being collected. All it is doing is making my AC work harder. If all roof top solar did was off set my AC electrical usage it would be a net positive. I recently saw a video with someone (who was most likely in the pocket of big energy) complaining that the excess energy produced from California roof top solar was just going to waste. Like what was happening to that energy before roof top solar? Anyway, excess energy generated by roof top solar is more an opportunity than a problem.

Hey Matt! I am a PhD student and I study the expansion of utility-scale solar and dual-use applications (agrivoltaics). Thanks so much for making this video! I love to discuss with people about the land use tradeoffs between residential and utility PV. I’m glad that you mentioned context dependency — this is a huge point that I stress in my research. Solar MUST be developed to fit the context of the region, both physical and cultural. Also: the opposite of NIMBY is either “Please in my backyard” (PIMBY) or “Yes in my backyard” (YIMBY), straight from the literature! :)

Solar panels and batteries on every home would help (some) with the infrastructure problem, too. Generate most of the power "on-site" and you don't need better transmission lines than we have now.

Way back in the late 70s when my brother was getting into early rooftop solar panels, we couldn't have imagined that people would cover fields with them, in favor of them being on every modern roof across the world.

Instead of building solar farms in fields, meadows and cut forests for it. A much better spot is parking lots. With the added benefit it offers a roof and shade for people/cars in that parking lot. And those big parking lots are usually next to big users of power when those panels produce like big stores. shopping centres and airports...

All of the ones you mentioned are good. I really like the panels over canals because in the desert where canals are commonly found they actually help preserve water. One you didn't mention is solar panels over parking lots. It is a lot of flat open space and I wish were something that were more common. People love parking in the shade so why not under solar panels? This would be similar to rooftop solar as transmission costs would be negligible. It could also have some added benefits of making cars less hot in the summer and potentially save kids lives if they are accidentally left in the car.

This is exactly what I've been saying. Particularity once we get more efficient panels, our homes could power our factories. Others place to consider: Above parking lots & highways.

In the Netherlands, without any storage of solar power, there are too many panels. However storing it is pretty cheap and easy. Storage is like 2000 EURO per 15kWh, and a 5kW inverter that can store and retrieve power from that (MPII 5000+a GX or MPII5000GX) is 800 euro...1000 euro. This allows upgrading your AC solar inverter into offgrid mode if it respects the M(icrogrid)50(Hz) or M60 standard. So for less than 3000 euro you can upgrade your solar setup with local storage. And better: you don't need to have solar panels to help solar generation: A lot of others are generating solar energy already. In next day pricing that means during the solar high the prices are extremely low or even negative, and you can store this power in your battery to help the grid shed the excess load. During the evening you can use it or even send it back and get paid for it. So yeah: too much solar, excess power during the summer. In the netherlands the battery also helps with storing excess wind power. Because wind power is very cheap and there is a lot of it during the winter. But just like solar it is not predictable. So again: you can help the community and your own wallet by storing excess power from the grid, provided you use next day dynamic pricing.

Please explain how building a solar farm can "soak up" enough water to threaten the viability of local water supplies. I don't see the connection. How is water used when building a utility scale PV installation?

I know this is a pipe dream but I wish profit didn't control Everything and we could see a wide spread social project where all buildings got solar onto their roofs.

The first step would be to mandate solar on the roof of every new building or every new car park.