About those German solar power plants...

[ProgressiveProfessor]

63. Advantage of PV is that aside from occasionally rinsing them off, residential installations require

nothing. A very good thing in the long run and the abilities and interests of John Q Public.

The disadvantage are the hucksters. Everyone is selling it, hyping new technologies that are going to set the energy world on its ear etc. Not that they are all snake oil, but they either need time to mature, or are not suitable for long term/no maintenance use. The practical PV technology is evolving vice jumping in leaps and bounds.

Microgrids at some point require home occupants to understand how things work and cooperate. The public has a pretty poor record of doing that. If it is all utility magic, the ongoing support costs will impact savings. For them its as much a culture change as a technology and architecture change. Doable, but certainly not overnight. They also do not address the urban areas where there is insufficient available acreage to support the number of people. All that said, new developments should be structured to be microgrids from the start. Some people will see that approach as racist and classist, but we have to start somewhere.