Off the grid: why solar sometimes makes sense despite the cost

In the US, solar power remains one of the pricier options. Without tax breaks and renewable energy mandates, we'd probably see only a fraction of the installations that we currently do. And without much in the way of on-grid storage, solar is mostly useful for cutting into the peak demand that tends to hit mid-day.

All of which would seem to indicate that there's even less of a reason to install solar outside of wealthy, industrialized nations like the US and Germany. After all, if it doesn't always make economic sense here, it would make absolutely no sense to install it in developing nations where the cost matters much more. But that reasoning may very well be wrong; the things that are problems in the US may not apply at all in countries that don't have an existing grid and large generating facilities feeding power into it.

Coal generating facilities only become economic and efficient when they're relatively large. Natural gas plants can reach pretty good efficiencies when they're smaller, but these plants tend to need a large infrastructure to feed them with fuel. These factors mean that fossil fuel generating facilities make the most sense when plugged into a grid, which can then distribute their output to an appropriate number of homes or facilities.