Move over for solar!

Credit: AAP

While solar energy still has far to come, it has surpassed many milestones over the past few years to the point that it is becoming competitive with other energy sources in some locations. Check out this recent article about rooftop solar energy contributions to the grid in Australia. Rooftop solar even drove the wholesale price of electricity into negative territory and to around zero during the day for several days. It will be interesting to see how solar energy will play out in the future. Will this make coal plants less profitable and drive them out of business? What happens then when the sun isn't shining brightly? How is the energy stored? Is the rooftop model the best for consumers? For how long will those producing energy with rooftop panels be able to charge retail price for the energy instead of wholesale price? How will the utilities respond? This is another article that deals with some of this response question.