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The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months

electrek.co

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Re: The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months

#11

Post by MichaelBurge »

giarc wrote: post #6
Retric wrote: post #2

A side effect of this, large scale grid solar is now significantly cheaper than rooftop solar due to labor costs.

At which point would it be financially beneficial for a farmer to turn a field into a solar farm rather than plant a crop? I have no knowledge in economics of either so I couldn't even estimate.

I think you get fined if you do that.

Re: The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months

#12

Post by imglorp »

giarc wrote: post #6
Retric wrote: post #2

A side effect of this, large scale grid solar is now significantly cheaper than rooftop solar due to labor costs.

At which point would it be financially beneficial for a farmer to turn a field into a solar farm rather than plant a crop? I have no knowledge in economics of either so I couldn't even estimate.

On a related note, an agricultural high school near me has a field dedicated to solar panels, that powers most of the school buildings. The students are learning how to farm photons alongside corn.

http://solarbuildermag.com/news/church-farm-school-in-pennsy...

Re: The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months

#13

Post by Tloewald »

giarc wrote: post #6
Retric wrote: post #2

A side effect of this, large scale grid solar is now significantly cheaper than rooftop solar due to labor costs.

At which point would it be financially beneficial for a farmer to turn a field into a solar farm rather than plant a crop? I have no knowledge in economics of either so I couldn't even estimate.

I think the economics of food production will probably trounce that of power production. In any event, it's more efficient to stick solar panels in the desert and wire electricity to places that are less sunny.

Re: The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months

#15

Post by Retric »

giarc wrote: post #6
Retric wrote: post #2

A side effect of this, large scale grid solar is now significantly cheaper than rooftop solar due to labor costs.

At which point would it be financially beneficial for a farmer to turn a field into a solar farm rather than plant a crop? I have no knowledge in economics of either so I couldn't even estimate.

Diminishing returns mean you end up covering deserts with solar before farm land. Next, highly marginal farm land.

On the other hand, wind farms have a tiny footprint so that's already a major thing in some areas.

Re: The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months

#16

Post by maxerickson »

hughes wrote: post #14

If the price of solar continues to drop rapidly, why would anyone buy solar? Waiting a couple years for another 50% price drop seems like an obvious choice while we're still in the $5k-10k range to outfit a home.

Presumably people buying solar now are comparing it to the other available options rather than future solar.

Re: The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months

#17

Post by Scirra_Tom »

hughes wrote: post #14

If the price of solar continues to drop rapidly, why would anyone buy solar? Waiting a couple years for another 50% price drop seems like an obvious choice while we're still in the $5k-10k range to outfit a home.

Isn't it only dropping because people are buying it? If no one was buying it, it'd get more expensive. Also, a 50% drop this year doesn't guarantee a 50% drop next year. And perhaps there's some speculation that traditional energy sources are going to increase in price going forwards.

Also, I think for a lot of buyers there's more to the purchase than cost. A lot of organisations have environmental targets to hit nowadays, solar is one way to realise these targets.

And as another commenter mentioned, some people buying might not have a choice (not having electricity isn't an option).

Re: The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months

#18

Post by dpierce9 »

tim333 wrote: post #4

Pretty impressive. They need to work on cheaper batteries now.

Batteries would be great but they are not necessary unless you want to replace all generation with solar which would be a gargantuan undertaking. As part of the current generation stack, even at expanded scale, solar works very well without storage.

Re: The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months

#19

Post by dabeeeenster »

hughes wrote: post #14

If the price of solar continues to drop rapidly, why would anyone buy solar? Waiting a couple years for another 50% price drop seems like an obvious choice while we're still in the $5k-10k range to outfit a home.

Some of the costs are not going to come down much more. Installation labour, roof panel frames, inverter etc. etc. can come down a little but not by much.

https://electrek.files.wordpress.com/2016/05/chart.jpeg?w=77...

The price curve has to start flattening out soon! (I hope it doesn't, but I can't see how you can carry on achieving 50% price drops so rapidly...)

Re: The price of solar power just fell 50% in 16 months

#20

Post by Retric »

hughes wrote: post #14

If the price of solar continues to drop rapidly, why would anyone buy solar? Waiting a couple years for another 50% price drop seems like an obvious choice while we're still in the $5k-10k range to outfit a home.

People need power now and are not willing wait 5 years. So, someone is going to buy additional power generation now. In which case it's a question of current solar prices vs. (coal, nuclear, etc.) not future solar prices vs current solar pirces.
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