wilful
Larry Dwyer (12)
I have seen PV panels installed on south facing roofs. Which is pretty moronic.""One controversial example is solar panels supported where the sun doesn't shine."
I happen to agree that massive subsidies for domestic PV is, from the perspective of reducing emissions at the least cost, a pretty stupid public policy idea. It is subsidising middle class home owners at the cost of cheaper renewable energy for all including poor people, renters etc. Of course, as a rational individual, I used the subsidy three times, if the government's handing out free money, there's no point not being in line. But the money would have been far better spent on a number of things, such as wind farms, insulation (Pink batts was an excellent program that reduced the number of deaths in the industry), large scale CST, 7 star ratings for houses, etc.
So Runner, while I think that if you oppose renewable energy on any and all grounds, or think we can't afford it, you're a fool. But everyone else, if you think that renewable energy gets a free pass from proper good policy analysis, well that's almost as bad.
Unfortunately Germany, while they've installed heaps and heaps of solar panels, their emissions have gone up. Because they are irrationally decommissioning nuclear power stations and are running coal fired stations harder. This is pretty sad.
I don't like PV, I like any and all low/no carbon electricity technology. Whatever works best, cheapest, reliably.