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Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S

earther.com

31–40 of 352 posts

Re: Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S

#31

I'm mostly gratified by what a "Dog bites man" story this is. Solar prices have been decreasing steadily for a long time so we should expect to see a story like this every few months until the adoption curve flattens out - which hopefully won't be for a while.

The bit about storage becoming a routine part of bids was an interesting piece of information.

Re: Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S

#32

I would not trust a source called "earther.com" to tell me good news about solar because they're clearly going to be biased. When power industry magazines talk about solar being cheap then i'll believe it

1) Power industry magazines, regulated utilities, mainstream newspapers, and others have 2) This source, regardless of bias, is reporting published public price information for long-term contracts, and comparing said published price information to other published price information. So what's your objection beyond the focus of the site?

Re: Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S

#33

I would not trust a source called "earther.com" to tell me good news about solar because they're clearly going to be biased. When power industry magazines talk about solar being cheap then i'll believe it

PG&E has an option where you can choose to have 50% or 100% of your power come from solar:

>...When you enroll, PG&E will purchase additional, new solar resources to meet your electricity needs as well as those of other participating customers.

As you might have guessed, you pay a premium for his option:

>...Your monthly electric energy statement will include a charge for the solar power you are purchasing and related program charges, as well as a credit for the standard generation you are no longer purchasing. Today, the net of these charges and credits is a premium.

https://www.pge.com/en_US/residential/solar-and-vehicles/opt...

Re: Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S

#34
post #11

There is an interesting part about solar generating electricity when its sunny - it will help population move to warmer climes. If you live in Ohio heating in winter is a problem, solar isn't going to keep you warm on a cold night (ok batteries can help but they're expensive). If you live in the South West though its perfect as Winter nights dont require much heat and the biggest loads are AC at the times when there…

Why does it have to be electric heat? Natural Gas is doing a good job right now. Let's work on supplying electricity, for things that require electricity first. When we've moved away non renewable energy sources for electricity generation, then move onto the heating issues in colder climates.

Re: Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S

#35
post #11

There is an interesting part about solar generating electricity when its sunny - it will help population move to warmer climes. If you live in Ohio heating in winter is a problem, solar isn't going to keep you warm on a cold night (ok batteries can help but they're expensive). If you live in the South West though its perfect as Winter nights dont require much heat and the biggest loads are AC at the times when there…

If you live in Ohio that is a problem, solar isn't going to keep you warm on a cold night Houses built to the German Passivhaus standard would do just fine in Ohio. I used to live in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, so I should know. There was one Minnesota church built with polystyrene panels that had to start running air conditioning in the middle of winter, the insulation was so good. If you live in the South West t…

is the expense of desalinization the electricity? Which would go down with adoption of solar?

Re: Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Various data here: https://www.eia.gov/electricity/wholesale/ From my brief browsing, $23.76 is <70% of the average $/MWh price across the available data.

That's mind boggling. This is absolutely incredible. Our country has so000 much hot, sunny unused land in the west. Let's cover it up with solar panels and make use of the free sunshine.

[deleted]

Re: Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S

#37

I'm mostly gratified by what a "Dog bites man" story this is. Solar prices have been decreasing steadily for a long time so we should expect to see a story like this every few months until the adoption curve flattens out - which hopefully won't be for a while.

The bit about storage becoming a routine part of bids was an interesting piece of information.

I was thinking the same thing. The gigafactory isn't mention in this, but could there be synergies with Tesla's (somewhat shady... pun intended) acquisition of SolarCity?

These sorts of installs aren't exactly the same thing, but maybe SolarCity needs to pivot to from distributed consumer to large scale utility.

Re: Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S

#38

Q: Where one can check solar energy prices?

You have to read a bunch of news articles and keep an eye out for articles that actually include numbers. I don't know of any public databases aggregating that sort of information. There are commercial services that sell data and reports.

Keep in mind that solar electricity, like any form of electricity generation, has location-specific and project-specific cost factors. Building any form of power plant is cheaper in China than in Germany. Solar power prices in Nevada are almost always going to be cheaper than in Michigan, because even if the construction costs are the same, the arrays will get more sun per year in Nevada.

Re: Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S

#39
post #11

There is an interesting part about solar generating electricity when its sunny - it will help population move to warmer climes. If you live in Ohio heating in winter is a problem, solar isn't going to keep you warm on a cold night (ok batteries can help but they're expensive). If you live in the South West though its perfect as Winter nights dont require much heat and the biggest loads are AC at the times when there…

If you live in Ohio that is a problem, solar isn't going to keep you warm on a cold night Houses built to the German Passivhaus standard would do just fine in Ohio. I used to live in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, so I should know. There was one Minnesota church built with polystyrene panels that had to start running air conditioning in the middle of winter, the insulation was so good. If you live in the South West t…

>Houses built to the German Passivhaus standard would do just fine in Ohio. I used to live in Ohio and Western Pennsylvania, so I should know. There was one Minnesota church built with polystyrene panels that had to start running air conditioning in the middle of winter, the insulation was so good.

You'd have to level most structures and rebuild from scratch to manage that in large parts of North America to make a difference.

Never mind the fact heaters aren't the only thing that use electricity at night.

Re: Solar Just Hit a Record Low Price in the U.S

#40

I would not trust a source called "earther.com" to tell me good news about solar because they're clearly going to be biased. When power industry magazines talk about solar being cheap then i'll believe it

Is there anything specific about that source besides the name that increases your skepticism? By that logic, one could say that anyone posting under a pseudonym containing "sol" shouldn't be trusted when they comment on a solar topic either.
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