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

electrek.co

41–50 of 448 posts

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

#41
post #2

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

Well large corp/utilities need to grab it now because if endpoint arbitraging becomes widespread, that will be a serious threat to the old utility model.

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

#42
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.

I think you get fined if you do that.

Care to explain? Because unless you're arguing along the lines of something something farm subsidies, I'm pretty sure you're wrong.

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

#43
post #15
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.

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: Windfarms

This has been a dramatic change in the US midwest landscape over the last decade. When driving through Iowa or Kansas these days, the horizon is constantly dotted with wind turbines nestled in amongst the corn fields or livestock pastures. 15 years ago this was NOT the case.

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

#44
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…

My understanding is that transportation is actually a small factor in total food emissions. It seems that promoting "local food" without paying attention to whether that food can be optimally produced locally, might be more environmentally unfriendly than simply producing it wherever it is most efficient to produce and then transporting it.

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

#45
This might seem like a weird thing to complain about, but am I the only person who is sick to death of headlines of the form "X just did Y"? It's the "just" I object to. It seems to be some sort of trend over the last couple of years.

I think it's to make it seem more dramatic or something. It just happened! My god!

In this case it is especially ridiculous, since the article describes something that happened over the course of 16 months.

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

#46
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.

This is only an issue if you don't NEED the energy NOW. People need it now and they have to get it from somewhere. It doesn't matter what it will cost if you have to have it now. All that matters is what your options are today.

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

#47
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Solar panels might get in the way of them using their farm equipment if they're close together.

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

#48
And here in the USA some states are punishing solar customers who sell their energy, by taxing them on infrastructure costs, to protect the big energy companies. Their reasoning for taxing them is to "maintain the lines and equipment". The counter-argument to that is, "customers who consume pay taxes and fee's to maintain the lines, and on top of that, the government is giving them tax breaks to help "maintain the lines"

i get mad even thinking about it.

Same with internet, Cable, TV. The lawmakers will always try and mitigate the disruption, but all they are doing is delaying the inevitable.

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

#49
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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: Windfarms This has been a dramatic change in the US midwest landscape over the last decade. When driving through Iowa or Kansas these days, the horizon is constantly dotted with wind turbines nestled in amongst the corn fields or livestock pastures. 15 years ago this was NOT the case.

Yup. You can even see it from the air. With ever-increasing turbine sizes, these things are easily visible from 39,000 ft.

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

#50

This might seem like a weird thing to complain about, but am I the only person who is sick to death of headlines of the form "X just did Y"? It's the "just" I object to. It seems to be some sort of trend over the last couple of years. I think it's to make it seem more dramatic or something. It just happened! My god! In this case it is especially ridiculous, since the article describes something that happened over the…

I was just (sorry) gonna post the same thing.

'Just' and '16 months' are pretty far apart in my mind, I found the headline quite awkward to read because of it.

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