What are the advantages and disadvantages of small scale Energy Production?

What does it mean by small scale production? Does it mean household electricity generation like personal solar panels or biomass boilers etc?

By 'small scale' I assume you mean stuff like solar panels, wind turbines, wave generators and so on, as opposed to coal power stations and nuclear power stations.

Advantages:
- Generally are cheaper to build - power stations range within the hundred thousands to millions, whereas these can be as cheap as £50.
- Take up a lot less space - the largest you will ever get will be a wind turbine, but compared to a hydroelectric dam, they take up no space at all.
- They don't destroy the landscape or ruin habitats as badly - hydroelectric dams can drastically alter the river course and destroy habitats due to building, but small-scale ones can fit in nicely on a house.
- These generally emit less greenhouse gas emissions - most of the small-scale are renewable.

Disadvantages
- Longer payback time - generally the idea of these is that they have a small initial cost but a long payback time. Power stations have a huge initial cost but pay it back very quickly.
- Generate small amounts of electricity - they generally cannot be solely relied upon unless they are in masses.
- Can be limited in versatility - such as wind turbines being restricted to windy conditions.
- Still emit greenhouse gas emissions - despite being otherwise harmless, it still requires energy to create these things and import them. So there's a lot of embodied energy.

These are off the top of my head, I just thought of them. I am sure there are many more to be researched. But generally these are the three or four things the examiners will expect to be answered in a question. Perhaps excluding the last disadvantage, but all of them are probably valid exam answers.

Yes I am in Yr 10

I'm doing triple science for AQA

By 'small scale' I assume you mean stuff like solar panels, wind turbines, wave generators and so on, as opposed to coal power stations and nuclear power stations.

Advantages:
- Generally are cheaper to build - power stations range within the hundred thousands to millions, whereas these can be as cheap as £50.
- Take up a lot less space - the largest you will ever get will be a wind turbine, but compared to a hydroelectric dam, they take up no space at all.
- They don't destroy the landscape or ruin habitats as badly - hydroelectric dams can drastically alter the river course and destroy habitats due to building, but small-scale ones can fit in nicely on a house.
- These generally emit less greenhouse gas emissions - most of the small-scale are renewable.

Disadvantages
- Longer payback time - generally the idea of these is that they have a small initial cost but a long payback time. Power stations have a huge initial cost but pay it back very quickly.
- Generate small amounts of electricity - they generally cannot be solely relied upon unless they are in masses.
- Can be limited in versatility - such as wind turbines being restricted to windy conditions.
- Still emit greenhouse gas emissions - despite being otherwise harmless, it still requires energy to create these things and import them. So there's a lot of embodied energy.

What do you mean by versatility?Do you mean reliability?