Solar Energy, what can we do now?

How should solar energy be incorporated into our world?

The way I look at it is we're going to pay a price one way or another. Burning fossil fuels is worst than nuclear is worst than solar or other green technologies. While I can imagine an environmental impact of taking up large areas of land to cover it w/ solar panels, at least it doesn't damage the land it sits on and one can image that animal life probably wouldn't care less about it. The fact that we take up much larger areas for farming tells me that this is certainly a viable option.

I believe that making the investment to do it right always is the better solution than trying to save money in the short term.

Here's some alternative solutions:


Solar Tower Project

There's also a relatively new initiative regarding solar farming where farmers disperse solar panels along the edges of their farms... it is rapidly become popular in Europe where the government is supplimenting farmers who participate... many farmers looking at it as yet another crop they can make money on.
USDA Solar Farm


Here's some info on the world largest solar farm to date

There's one more place solar panels can go, on top of roofs. It may seem obvious, the 'land' is already available to us, that doesn't take up any additional unused land which I believe is a national asset.

Expecting individual families to foot the bill is another thing but I do believe that energy companies can provide incentives along with governments to make it a viable solution for many existing structures. It becomes a question of efficiency, how quickly can installations get completed in order to keep the cost down or, what steps can be taken during new construction to make all future homes ready to easily accept solar panels.... this is really the first step every country should be taking now... making all new roof structures solar panel compliant.