because they are still too expensive and do little to replace your current dependency on PG&E.
The panels they are selling to the public have something like 10% power conversion, and after subsidies and taxes and cost and installation (and optional battery).... for a small panel that sits on your roof, you have still just spent at least $10k ($20k w/ battery) out of pocket and eliminated about 10-20% of your PG&E bill.
I'm getting these figures from the numerous presentations that have been done at my house over the last year. As exciting as it all sounds when they present it to you, the consumer level tech is just not worth the cost to those that can't afford to spend the money freely. They payback on that investment is like over a decade.
To make serious dent and collect enough sun, you are going to need the full roof replacement w/ solar battery and now you're looking at close to if not more than $100k. You might then still be looking at quite a few year payback on investment, but you won't be paying PG&E, as they would be paying you instead.
It may be pipe dream, but if this is gonna happen, it needs to happen on a rather large scale, even if that large scale is kinda small at first (i.e. proof of concept neighborhood or a business complex conversion - roof, parkinglot, private roads). You can't expect individuals to foot the bill as these type of panels would be far too expensive and not beneficial to a sparse selection of individuals spread out over a single town, county or state.
BnM is starting to go full blow Futurtopia in here! I always say you can change the world around them as much as you want, but people are still people.
Can you tell that I've been watching a lot of COSMOS lately? Great show BTW.
Really gets your inner futurist going. Reconnecting the discoveries of the past to the way that things have become in the present, lets you see where the things of the now may take us one day in the future.
developing solar on the ground now could lead to all sorts of new ****.
-what if all the excess energy we had led to a free way to space? using that extra electricity to make a magnetized space elevator.
-Since that the ground is literally a source of energy.... hoverboards? Back to the future could be sooner rather than later. MagLevBoards might not be what we call it, but it could be what makes it possible.
-Now that we are using Solar for everything, we should be able to refine it and get better energy conversion. Free way to space allowing us to now use solar energy to somehow propel our ships for free. No more heavy propulsion payloads.
Surviving on other planets now since we don't need fuel, we would have stored up plenty of solar energy for scouting robots, vehicles, etc etc.
my mind is running wild. I know we will get there someday (hopefully), but the
paper chase is what is slowing down progress.