Last week, Duke Energy (News - Alert) Renewables acquired three 1-megawatt commercial solar projects in the southwestern corner of North Carolina. This adds to their other eight megawatt solutions.

As I looked at the announcement, I asked myself what the relationship is between these farms that manage to get 1 megawatt and the big farms in the West that produce hundreds of megawatts.

I am of the belief that the problem is one of real estate. It’s true, according to these maps of the U.S.

The power opportunity is clearly in the Southwest; but looking at the population, there is clearly a problem of transport, as the population is mostly in the Northeast.

Looking at the national statistics, there are over 125 million homes in the U.S. 

Based on the announcement by Duke Energy and the systems deployed by PSE&G, we are clearly coming closer to the tipping point.

Right now the government incentive plans are enabling deployment of solar panels at these farms or on homes via the use of the renewable energy credits. In most of the populated areas, the utilities are large and are using solar farms, but it could be that we will start seeing other incentives.

For example, in the Midwest there are lots of municipal utilities. Perhaps we can find a way to incent within the municipal power companies to have a more rapid deployment.

The average panel system offer to a house produces about 5 kilowatts a month. Therefore, it takes about 200 homes to deliver the equivalent of a solar farm in the East. If the municipals put a strategy together to support the installation, that would overcome many homeowners’ concerns. While studies have shown that solar panels add to the resale value of a home, some potential buyers may be turned off by the concern of maintaining the system. The photovoltaics market is changing and having the utility supporting the deployment assures continued maintenance.

Other solutions to enable more rapid deployment could be associated with the sale of air rights for industrial complexes.

The point is, the deployment of the solar panel systems by the utilities is not making the dent in the demand or supply as rapidly as is needed and as the promise of the electric vehicle continues to approach, more dramatic solutions are warranted.