if everyone lived off the grid with their own energy for their homes (which by the way batteries are capable of sustaining an average home with solar of course) then the only time the grid would need to come in is in large businesses and shops, fuel stations etc.,(reply>), he is onto something but i understand your point and completely agree with it but if every house (unlikely anytime soon) in rural and the suburbs had solar then the need for huge wind turbines and so forth would be lessened but with the cost of solar currently and the government push back it would receive from politicians who have there fingers dipped in coal investments it wont happen,(reply>), You're forgetting the cost involved with solar panels for individual homes. Also, this might work in rural areas or even suburbs, where people live in single houses. What about urban areas and big cities with apartment blocks and all that? You're hardly gonna power a whole apartment block with solar, and that's not even talking about hot water.<br><br>It's a nice idea, but solar is far from being both efficient and cost effective.<br><br>And you'd still need the batteries for power usage at night.<br>This next point is a little far-fetched, but if electric vehicles become a trend and everyone switches to those, most people are gonna recharge them at night, adding even more power usage at night where you can't rely on solar, hence the need to use batteries for that as well.<br><br>There are a lot of factors at play; the only thing that's clear, even most homes won't be self-sustained on the power side of things.