Large still holds sway over most folks. And large plants are part of this obsession. Well, we need large to address the kind of demand there is for power. But when you look at things close, decentralised and small seems the more sensible way.
Take solar. A decentralized solar collection scheme is far more energy efficient than a centralized one. More than 30% of our electricity is lost in transmission in our current system, and a centralized solar plant is no different than the current system in this way. A decentralized system can supply power to where it is needed directly most of the time, only using the grid to offload surplus power.
A decentralized solar system will be far more resilient to natural disasters, as there will be no single points of failure that can bring down the whole grid. A decentralized solar system utilizes unused space on rooftops and in yards to generate power, whereas a centralized system requires the development of new land, destroying habitats while generating no more power. Rooftop systems shade the structure underneath, cutting energy usage in the summer months.
A decentralized solar strategy provides market space for lots of technologies to compete directly, without the generally anti-competitive nature of big monolithic construction contracts crowding out the small players.
The secondary costs of a centralized power system, like beefed up transmission lines, large ugly transformer stations, and so on are rarely calculated into the cost of concentrating lots of megawatts in one place. All this is done away in decentralised.
Of course, there are issues of storage needed, and the associated costs. But going by the above points it would be wise to agree decentralised wins. Right?
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