One of the hindrances among power companies is the integration of small solar power generators, like yours and mine, into the "system."
Trying to resolve technical difficulties that still prevent greater integration of solar energy into the nation's power grid, the U.S. Department of Energy has identified $2.9 million in private-sector solar projects it hopes to fund this fiscal year.
The DOE funding, which requires Congressional approval, would pay two-thirds the cost of the projects, with another $1.7 million to be contributed by private industry.
Overseeing the project will be the Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico. The central focus will be how to put together the small individual photovoltaic generating systems (yours and mine) with the nation's electric grid. The problem arises from the fact that the "grid" is set up for a one way flow, from the electric power companies to the individual homes.
With the proliferation of consumer-owned PV systems connected to the grid, electricity generation is becoming a two-way street as consumers generate their own electricity and sell whatever they don't use back into the grid.
It should come as no shock that the Department of Energy sees the small individual generating systems as a negative.
For the grid as a whole, the growing popularity of solar and other small generate-it-yourself systems can contribute to instability and potentially unsafe operations, according to the DOE.
The energy agency points out that clouds gathering and clearing can cause PV power output in a given service area to rise or fall quickly, so production of solar power may not match the times when power is most needed, such as late afternoon and early evening.
Of course, there are going to be challenges to the national grid system. When it was built no one ever dreamed that one day we would be able to generate power at home, using the sun as our sustainable source.
Today, with solar power contributing less than one percent of electricity generation in the country, such issues are inconsequential. But as consumer demand and government policy boost America's reliance on the Sun, solving the technical challenges becomes more urgent and necessary.
The projects the DOE said it hopes to support focus on conceptual design of hardware and market analysis, and point toward developing products that maximize the value of PV systems and give consumers greater control of their electricity consumption and costs.
"Our investment in these grid integration projects will lay the groundwork for high levels of solar photovoltaic market penetration," said John Mizroch, DOE principal deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy in a statement.
Mizroch cited the Solar America Initiative championed by President George W. Bush, which hopes to make solar energy cost-competitive with conventional sources of electricity by 2015.
I suspect that once the government finds a way to tax the sun and Mother Nature, they will be more eager to actually advance the integration of the small power producers with the large energy production plants.
It is up to us as individuals to support the initiative and to monitor the progress. Otherwise, we will find ourselves in the same lull that followed the energy crisis of the 1970's. Each of the administrations, both Democrat and Republican, have talked about energy and alternative energy for almost 40 years and have done nothing. However, the fault does not lie just with the administrations, but also with Congress.
We are now at a critical point in our history as Americans. We have sold our souls for barrels of oil. Even more importantly, we have all but destroyed the earth and its atmosphere. While many of us have begun setting aside a college fund for our children and grandchildren, we have done little to protect the air they will breathe or the water they will drink. We have done little to stop global warming, always leaving it up to the government or others to come up with the answer to the crisis.
Each of us can do something. It may be a small part, an iota of help to the overall issue, but if everyone did something, just a little something we could begin to protect the earth and the atmosphere for future generations.
We don't have to generate power to sell back to the electric companies now. Perhaps, we could begin by making small differences in our use of electric power. Our family began simply by using solar power to meet the needs of a greenhouse, then the workshop. Now, we are going totally solar. And, whether the U.S. electric power plants will be prepared to buy our excess power or not, we will hopefully within the year be independent from purchasing from them.