Solar Power Comes of Age (80% cheaper than in 2005)

[Blue_Tires]

Solar power has been declared a winner before, only to flounder. It’s easy to remain skeptical today, given that solar power accounts for less than one percent of the global energy supply. But it is also expanding faster than any other power source, with an average growth rate of 50 percent a year for the past six years. Annual installations of photovoltaic panels increased from a capacity of less than 0.3 gigawatts in 2000 to 45 gigawatts in 2014—enough to power more than 7.4 million American homes. This time really is different: solar power is ready to compete on its own terms.

The momentum behind solar power is a result of innovations in regulation, industry, technology, and financing. In a number of markets, it no longer needs public subsidies to compete on price with conventional power sources, such as coal, natural gas, and nuclear power. The International Energy Agency, which has historically taken a conservative approach to evaluating solar power’s prospects, has projected that by 2050, in the best-case scenario, solar energy could be the single biggest source of power, generating as much as 27 percent of electricity worldwide.


If that happens, the consequences will be profound. Electricity will reach places that have never known what it means to get light or heat on demand. The price of electricity could fall, and utilities will have to figure out how to adapt. But the environmental gains, in terms of lower emissions of particulates, sulphur, and greenhouse gases, would be profound. 


THE POWER OF POLICY


Four factors lie behind the rise of solar power. The first is regulatory support. Around the world, governments have enacted a range of pro-solar policies, including requirements that utilities generate a given fraction of their electricity from solar power, feed-in tariffs (a guaranteed price per kilowatt of solar power), and subsidies to manufacturers of solar panels and the households that buy them. Policymakers have supported solar power for a number of reasons, including a desire to reduce emissions, diversify their countries’ energy supplies, and create jobs. Perhaps most important, they recognized the long-term potential of solar power and wanted to foster a market for it. 


http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/143066/dickon-pinner-and-matt-rogers/solar-power-comes-of-age

[Sherman A1]

1. K&R!

[TheBlackAdder]

2. Solar's percentage of Global Power should not be used as a factor of viability.

The US and the EU only accounts for a fraction of the world's population.


As with any new technology, most people will seek replacement when their existing infrastructures fail. For residential homeowners, in top 2nd-world countries and above, most will make the move when their existing systems being to fail or faultier. This is one of the factors delaying geothermal installations (existing systems are operational, property limitations for tubing, and the need for forced-air ductwork). With solar, people might also delay for a new roof installation first.


For me, there were scads of defective Chinese units shipped to the US over the past decade, and Chinese authorities closed down many of those factories last year--but the supplies are still at some firms in the US awaiting installation. These units have high failure rates. China installed most of the domestic inventory, instead of destroying them, to ease coal use.


The majority of the world is poor, relying on coal, oil and wood burning. They could not afford the price at current prices, let alone the prices from just 5 years ago.


Still, with pricing and technology changing on a weekly, if not daily basis, the price per Kw still did not hit its lowest levels. Right now, while solar is becoming attractive, the assumption of the role of power company to now maintain your own power is still a detractor.


But, redirecting back to the original reply, any change to existing power or heat sources, requires capital most do not have.

[Blue_Tires]

3. kick