Closer Look Shows Way More US Solar Power

[n2doc]

by Pete Danko
There’s no better source for data on energy than the Energy Information Administration (EIA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy. But when it comes to solar energy and how much of it is being generated annually, the EIA is apparently out to lunch.

According to Michael Mendelsohn, a market and policy impact analyst at the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado, EIA misses not just some but the majority of solar energy generated. How can this be?

Mendelsohn said in a blog post that it’s because “the agency’s numbers only capture facilities over 1 megwawatt (MW), and even then, likely miss production as system owners may not know of their obligation to report this information.”

That’s right: EIA statistic don’t include all the power coming from the thousands and thousands of small systems people have installed on their roofs in recent years, nor from the fairly big systems that have gone in on warehouses and business and maybe even some of the larger systems that are supposed to be part of the data.
more
http://www.earthtechling.com/2012/06/closer-look-shows-way-more-us-solar-than-we-thought/

[Sirveri]

1. They also tend to have to estimate highway solar.

How much power is needed to charge those roadside emergency phones, remote signs with flashing lights, etc etc etc... They do like to toss in an estimate however, and when tossed into the mix brings solar above the 1% mark for total generation. Around 3% of renewable generation.