http://www.grist.org/list#item-2011-04-29-is-the-future-of-solar-centralized-or-distributed

By Christopher Mims

29 Apr 2011

Solar power produces only a tiny fraction of America's energy, but that hasn't stopped greens -- who are always up for expending at least as much energy fighting each other as fighting fossil fuels -- from commencing a debate that we'll probably be having for decades, if not centuries to come: Is it better to build gigantic, centralized solar power plants that function like the fossil fuel-powered plants they're designed to replace, or should we do something more radical and create a distributed power generation system, in which solar photovoltaic panels are sited as close as possible to the users of the electricity they produce?

The arguments in favor of distributed solar are myriad -- putting solar panels on your roof or in your neighborhood doesn't require a gigantic new transmission infrastructure, like building a plant in the middle of the desert would, and there are no losses due to transporting that electricity to remote markets, which can be significant.