“Per unit of electricity, installing small-scale solar on buildings requires less energy (as embodied in metal, concrete, and so on) than building large solar farms. In terms of energy and carbon, solar farms pay for themselves within a few years, he said, but put solar panels on an existing structure, and “the payback time becomes extremely fast, and in some cases, instantaneous.” Building-integrated solar all the way up. We don’t actually need to cover bucolic fields with solar panels.
Sun and Wood Can Be a Powerful Combination
In the right place, at the right time
theatlantic.com