We are going OT from the original subject of personal panels but...
Germany decided to shut off it's nuclear plants in response to the incident in Japan. A very blinkered approach as nobody died from the nuclear accident in Japan. They have switched to using coal which is the most dangerous and dirtiest form of energy available.
Genius!
I think that decision will become more "elastic" over time.
A better approach for Solar Panel owners would be to simply allow them to use the panel power they generate to reduce what they themselves draw from the grid and not allow them to feed back into it. This could be done easily, remove the subsidy. If a panel owner can save enough to cover the cost they win, otherwise only they lose - it becomes their risk and not one others have to cover. And the grid becomes more stable.
The underlying assumption behing renewables is that the alternatives would become increasingly scarce and more expensive resulting in the cost of renewables starting to match those of gas or nuclear. This simply hasn't happened and there is no sign of it happening in the near or medium future. As for the long term nobody knows and the technology of today's renewables would be dead anyway.
Also what abut land use for large scale energy production, you know for factories, shops, offices, towns, the technology we are all using just now...
