"Solar World"

“Solar world” was written on a t-shirt of a young man on the street near my gym/pool.  So what am I seeing?  A couple of new housing developments have solar panels on almost all the roofs.  And in older sections of housing, there is as much as 5% of retrofit solar panels.  Because the roofs are sloped, the panels are mounted parallel to the roof and just a short distance above its surface.  Some of the panels are much smaller than we are used to seeing – maybe 15 or 18 inches square.

Interestingly, at the edge of some of the smaller town, where there are usually rice fields, I have seen sections of solar panels mounted on the ground for an area about the size of a couple of rice fields.  What is the subsidy system for home solar?  What is the subsidy system for the arrays at the edge of town?  Which is the bigger return on investment – solar electricity or rice? Why am I not seeing very much solar on industrial buildings? 

Some roofs have the traditional solar hot water – maybe 5%.  Because I am studying this from the shinkansen (bullet train) window, I make no claims to have any sort of a scientific sample.  Why don’t we see more solar hot water on homes in the US? 

I think that greenhouses probably count as a form of solar too – and there are a lot of them at the edges of the smaller towns.  Since there is plenty of sun and heat now, they are not being used, but I am sure that they serve to extend the season.  What are they growing in the fields near these greenhouses?  There is rice on the flat parts, and some vegetables including lotus, and then tea going up the hillsides.