"Not surprisingly consumers have a different view on this. Just because you've got some cheap and sunny land to build on doesn't mean it makes sense to run a big piece of wire out to it."
Exactly. And those projects that don't make market sense are soon washed ou, not making it past FEED stages. Wherever a comodity is available, it won't be marketable if the cost of producing and delivering it runs it up over the market price. Thus in a free market both producer and transporter must agree on each of their respective risks and costs before committing to construct their respective portions of any kind of project in their combined effort to deliver the product at competitive prices. Consumers of the products must generally expect to pay for all of those associated costs of production, storage, transportation, delivery, cost of sales and risk amortatization, if they do indeed wish to purchase such products. If they don't, one of the parties underestimated their risk and must accept the consequences. Typical negotiations between all the parties involved will normally set out terms that fall within all market constraints even before getting to permit phases. The ultimate consumer of the goods generally pays all costs involved, unless there is some regulatory decision to the contrary (add that to the risk). Otherwise known as "There is no free lunch". So, if there is a far away sunny space with a solar farm on it, there probably was a big piece of wire already running nearby, or its a seller's market.