PV benefit

The right metric for where to install solar

The world has a limited capacity for producing new PV modules. Where’s the best place to put them?

The usual answer is to look at the solar potential in particular places, based on how much sunshine they get, or financial return, based on what it costs to install and run a system in a place, and what the power will be worth. None of these metrics is quite right, though, if we are concerned with maximizing the climate benefit with the limited resources we have now. Better is to look at how much carbon will be offset by a PV installation in a particular place. This is a combination of the carbon intensity of the electric grid in that place, and the solar potential of that place.