Producing a significant amount of electricity from the sun means building large-scale solar arrays, and that leads to the question: Where to put them?

With Commerce's decision to further tax solar panels from China, “the U.S. government is actually creating a module shortage that will make it hard for the U.S. solar industry to reach it's 2015 and 2016 goals.”

Driving the competition are solar power and other new technologies, which reduce the demand to generate more electricity.

One major hurdle for installing solar panels is the lack of skilled workers to do the job. Some training is necessary to understand the complexities of these systems.

Residents now face restrictions on installing ground mounted solar systems based on lot size and will need a special use permit if they want to install solar panels on the part of a roof that faces a street.