Yes there's big discrepancies in the stats., depending on whether they're produced by BP BHP or Get up. And there are big differences between the amount of electricity generated and the amount used, (grid waste). But there's little doubt IMO that Solar energy is on the kind of roll that's only been seen in the past with the roll out of IT. New and novel ways of producing and installing are appearing all the time and prices are plummeting.
The Future – Towards a
Sustainable Electricity
Supply System
8.1 Introduction
We live in a world of enormous divides in terms of wealth, and these are refl ected in major
disparities of energy consumption per capita. An average American consumes a massive
13 000 kW h per year of electricity while in the underdeveloped regions of Africa the average
lies between 50 and 100 kW h. In fact, nearly two billion people have no access to electricity
at all. In terms of social justice and for more pragmatic considerations such as reduction in
tension between the haves and the have - nots, it is essential that this imbalance is
addressed.
A universal global electrifi cation scenario that allows all of the world ’ s population to attain
the current average per capita electricity consumption of just over 3,000 kWhrs per annum,
would require a massive increase in electricity generation capacity. Is it feasible to achieve
this using traditional fuels or nuclear power? Assuming that climate change is indeed happening,
the fi rst option would be an environmental disaster and it would substantially shorten
the period over which the limited oil and gas reserves would be available. The second option
might appear to be environmentally benign but would place unsustainable demand on uranium
supplies and give rise to additional quantities of nuclear waste that would exacerbate present
concerns regarding safe disposal.
The only sane alternative is a major increase in the exploitation of renewable energy
sources, leading eventually to a completely sustainable electricity supply system. Effecting
a transition from our present rapacious consumption of fi nite resources is of course a massive
challenge, but one that has to be met face on.
Renewable resources have a range of advantages. They are:
• nondepletable and will be there as along as the sun is shining;
• indigenous, hence reducing dependency on imported fuel from other countries with unstable
regimes;
• virtually nonpolluting, with some small emissions produced during manufacture and end -
of - life disposal;
• diverse and complementary in their time dependence;
• generally small and geographically distributed and can often be located near to the demand,
reducing transmission and distribution losses;
• robust in system terms because of the very large numbers of individual generators and the
statistical robustness of such a collection compared to centralized generation;
• particularly suited to the needs of developing countries, where systems based on renewable
energy technology can be simpler to manufacture than traditional fossil fuelled or nuclear
power stations.
http://dualibra.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Renewable-Energy-in-Power-Systems... 
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