Some of the rural towns in Australia have installed solar power to provide a significantly higher percentage of theirelectricity needs than solar provides for the cities of Australia.  This brings a few things to mind.  One is that as solar becomes economical, it will make it easier to expand into rural areas.  Solar will be able to be built on site and much of the cost of infrastructure can be avoided.  I was on a 30,000-acre rural ranch last Thursday, not far from our office in Santa Barbara, where a number of outposts had small solar panelsprovide electricity for pumps and lights.  It was a perfect use of the technology—avoiding the cost of infrastructure and the cost of transmission loss from the grid.

A second and serious issue is that to provide anadequate amount of solar generated electricity for communities requiressignificant space—imposing on the beauty of nature.  Take a look at the picture in this article found on the Solar3D Daily on our Twitter page.  Then imagine half as many solar panels in the picture providing the same amount of power.  That is what Solar3D hopes to accomplish.  With a solar cell that is substantially more efficient, much less space is require to provide the same amount of energy.  So we hope to make electricity both less expensive and more beautiful.

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/energy-smart/rural-towns-beat-city-folk-in-turning-to-sun-20110505-1ead4.html

Source