Solar thermal hot water vs solar PV system

Solar thermal is great and more efficient and cost effective for making hot water over solar PV but not for making solar thermal farms. Now in a large solar thermal farm for producing steam it falls short for many reasons. Water must be trucked or piped to act as the fuel for steam. This is the first problem. There was going to be a solar thermal farm in California and it was not accepted because water had to be trucked to the site. In California; the state is in charge of all mineral rights and water rights. This solar thermal power plant was not allowed to pump water. As of today there is no real way to store heat energy. So a solar thermal generating plant is limited in how many hours a day it can produce electric power.

Now for solar PV. In a solar PV system first there are no moving parts to break, or rust. Solar PV can produce electric power directly without the use of fuels or water.
Solar PV and hydro have energy storage unlike wind or solar thermal. Solar PV has a very low cost to maintain over any other form of generating electric power. Solar PV can be is the only product that can be off grid and energy independent for a sustainable future. Solar PV has a 25 year warranty and most other technology has months.

Cost! The cost of solar thermal is exactly the same cost as wind except for the large tracks of land needed for solar thermal, Wind requires less land and has the same mechanical operational cost associated with other forms of mechanical electric generation. Solar PV cost more in the beginning but in less than 4 years you have a return on investment. No other systems offers such a short term ROI. Another way to look at Solar PV over the other systems is. Do you want a system that cost less and breaks down or are you willing to pay more for reliability and no on going cost for fuels or service problems. This is why Solar PV is growing like crazy all over the world.