Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

electrek.co

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 448 posts

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

#31

Post by riffraff »

lotsofQs333 wrote: post #25
MichaelBurge wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you get fined if you do that.

Where? Even if this was true, surely it would depend on where you live, yeah? Country and local laws would vary? The questions was what it would cost a farmer, not farmer in place where it's obviously illegal? What...

Just for the sake of trivial knowledge (your comment is obviously correct that it varies) it is actually forbidden in Sardinia (Italy) to replace farmland with solar power fields.

You are only allowed to setup photovoltaic panels if you have plants below them (asparagus and some flowers grow fine, apparently).

I have no idea why.

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

#32

Post by jahnu »

cubano wrote: post #29

It's interesting how no one is discussing how the governments massive subsidy of the solar and wind power industries are completely distorting the market for these "prices", so studies like these are pretty much nonsense. Of course price/KW will drop massively if the entire thing is being propped up by taxpayer dollars and not the actual need to be profitable. I guess I just need to resign myself to the idea that so…

For other energy sources what % of the prices at each level rely on some sort of government subsidy?

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

#33

Post by theandrewbailey »

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 are buying solar today because it's already cheaper than buying grid electricity in a few places. Why wait for another price drop while paying the electric company even more?

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

#34

Post by nashashmi »

SwellJoe wrote: post #23
giarc wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There's a lot of farmland and ranch land in the US that shouldn't be farmland or ranch land. They're too dry, too hot, and competing for water resources with people and natural (sometimes endangered) ecosystems. So, maybe it's something that should be encouraged; the food those farms and ranches produce would need to be replaced by food grown in more appropriate climates, and we'd need to rethink our recent "local fo…

Hah! Only if dictatorship could ordain things to be done so correctly. Unfortunately we live in a capitalistic democracy.

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

#35

Post by comatose_kid »

cubano wrote: post #29

It's interesting how no one is discussing how the governments massive subsidy of the solar and wind power industries are completely distorting the market for these "prices", so studies like these are pretty much nonsense. Of course price/KW will drop massively if the entire thing is being propped up by taxpayer dollars and not the actual need to be profitable. I guess I just need to resign myself to the idea that so…

"Oil, coal and gas received more than four times the $120 billion paid out in incentives for renewables including wind, solar and biofuels"

source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2014-11-12/fossil-fue...

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

#36

Post by soperj »

SwellJoe wrote: post #23
giarc wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

There's a lot of farmland and ranch land in the US that shouldn't be farmland or ranch land. They're too dry, too hot, and competing for water resources with people and natural (sometimes endangered) ecosystems. So, maybe it's something that should be encouraged; the food those farms and ranches produce would need to be replaced by food grown in more appropriate climates, and we'd need to rethink our recent "local fo…

For farms that are too hot, a possibility might be that they'd be able to alternate crops with solar panels, and it would shorten the day's sun when the crops are in the shadow of the panels.

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

#37

Post by Pxtl »

cubano wrote: post #29

It's interesting how no one is discussing how the governments massive subsidy of the solar and wind power industries are completely distorting the market for these "prices", so studies like these are pretty much nonsense. Of course price/KW will drop massively if the entire thing is being propped up by taxpayer dollars and not the actual need to be profitable. I guess I just need to resign myself to the idea that so…

> Of course price/KW will drop massively if the entire thing is being propped up by taxpayer dollars and not the actual need to be profitable.

If saving the world was free, the private sector would have done it already. It's not, so it needs to be subsidized.

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

#38

Post by cyberpanther »

vonmoltke wrote: post #3

This article is making a really big deal out of bids . While the trend is encouraging, let's wait and see if the winning bidders can actually deliver at the prices they bid before getting too excited.

Actually I don't think it matters if they deliver at that price or not, just as long as the infrastructure gets built. Just like the companies that built the transnational railroad went bankrupt. That's the boom, bust cycle at work, for good at least this time.

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

#39

Post by mrfusion »

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.

Or do both! Grow mushrooms under the panels.
Post reply on HN