ABSTRACT
The Solar Electric Power Association’s (SEPA) President Julia Hamm in her speech334 in 2012 pointed out that “utility and the solar industry continue at odds rather than focused on finding win-win solutions.” She has a very good point but I believe the utility and the solar industry did not focus on finding win-win solutions and this was the result of the utilities’ corporate culture as the PV community from the beginning believed in a strong cooperation with utilities. One should recall from Chapter 4 of this book that 40 years before her presentation, in 1972 an expert panel believed that “central ground stations” will be one of the three major applications of PV. The US Department of Energy (DOE) and the oil company investors in PV companies continued to steer the PV industry toward this idea, the “big picture,” the central PV power station. But this idea was from the outset not even considered or maybe to use a better word, ignored or not taken seriously by the utilities.
