When it comes to solar energy, more is more

OVERCAPACITY is not an idea that the energy industry or regulators can comfortably embrace, but it might be the solution that makes solar energy a viable alternative to coal and other fossil fuels for the country’s main source of power.

The traditional knock against solar power is that it is unavoidably non-continuous; it doesn’t work at all at night, and works comparatively poorly in cloudy conditions, although the technology is improving. That has led, understandably, to a conventional point of view that solar is at best a supplement to some kind of “baseload” power supply provided by more familiar sources – coal, gas, perhaps nuclear, or even those appalling bunker oil-fueled power barges.