Are there limits to solar power?

The short
answer--yes--highlights five inconvenient
truths
Author: Andrew Nikiforuk

From: Alternatives Journal(Vol. 39, Issue 4)

Article: Margin Notes

1. FEW energy sources appear to be as
abundant, endless and clean as the sun. At
least, that's what I thought. The radiant star,
of course, bathes the Earth with more energy
every hour than our fossil fuel society burns
in a year.

2. So it is easy to understand why so many

greens assume that solar power can easily
replace the nearly 16 terawatts of energy
that hydrocarbons now provide. Even MIT
experts recently forecasted that solar thermal
systems could eventually challenge the
dominance of hydrocarbons in the global
energy budget by 2050. To do so, solar
modules would have to occupy an area the
size of Venezuela or Australia.

3. But the solar pioneers in Spain, where

modules now provide but a few per cent of
the nation's electricity, say these figures are
way too optimistic. Solar will play a
significant role, but not a royal one. One
group of Spanish engineers, for example,
calculates that no more than two to four
terawatts of solar energy can ever be
successfully harvested for human
consumption. And they base these sober
calculations, in part, on some inconvenient
realities that greens need to debate openly.
Geography
4. The sun offers unequal energy opportunities.
It does not shine intensely everywhere.
South Africa, Chile, Arizona, Australia and the
Arabian Peninsula experience much higher
rates of radiation than, say, Europe and
Russia. As a consequence, it costs less to
generate more solar power in places like
sunny California than it does in cloudy
Germany or Ontario. Yet much of our solar
infrastructure has been built in cloudy
developed nations with high-energy
spending and mediocre levels of radiation.
Tellingly, cheap oil has discouraged the use
of solar power in political regions such as the
Middle East.

Ownership
5. Solar is now largely a bipolar operation.
Individuals use small panels to provide 20 to
60 per cent of their daily electrical needs
while large corporations generate hundreds
of megawatts with massive installations.
There is no in between. Solar power owned
and used by local communities remains
unexplored. Community ownership would
use less space, decentralize power
distribution and engage--if not change--the
quantity of energy spending. As one 2012
study noted, few such experiments exist and
"they often don't meet their objectives of
providing clean, environmentally friendly
energy that is affordable for the community
stakeholders."

Rare Materials
6. The cost and availability of materials may
also limit the use of solar modules. Many
require rare elements such as gallium,
tellurium, indium and selenium. Called
"hitchhiker" metals, most are the byproduct
of industrial copper, zinc or lead production.
New thin-film solar sheets, for example,
depend on indium. Moreover, indium
reserves are largely located in China, and the
US Geological Survey predicts global
supplies could be depleted within 10 years.