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The price has been rapidly decreasing in the last 10 years, to the point that it no longer makes sense to not have solar everywhere. It's cheaper than coal, and

by sxates 10y ago

The price has been rapidly decreasing in the last 10 years, to the point that it no longer makes sense to not have solar everywhere. It's cheaper than coal, and will soon be cheaper than all the other fossil fuels as well, and will continue to go down, never up. China now employs over 1 million workers making solar panels. And they're ramping that up as fast as they can, and shelving coal power plants. We've reached that critical tipping point for PV solar to go vertical, and Tesla/SolarCity just built their own factory in Buffalo to take advantage.

legolas2412 10y ago
I think solar is the future, but these claims are stupid. > "to the point that it no longer makes sense to not have solar everywhere. It's cheaper than coal, and will soon be cheaper than all the other fossil fuels as well, and will continue to go down, never up." Then the market should automatically have shifted to 100% solar by now. Solar is getting cheaper yes, but it is dependent on hours of sunlight available, which like wind energy, is unreliable and doesn't work at periods (like night). Further, the capacity of a solar power plant isn't its produced electricity, because the capacity is mainly peak capacity, which is only reached a few hours a day. > China now employs over 1 million workers making solar panels Don't know where that figure is from, but I guess china must be covered in solar panels by now. 1 million is large number of people. Unless your figures are deceiving. For example, walmart sells solar panels. So, you will count every walmart employee as a solar panel retail employee.
- sxates 10y ago
  >Then the market should automatically have shifted to 100% solar by now. 65% of new capacity in the US last year was wind or solar.[1] The world doesn't change overnight, but expect that trend to continue. Renewable energy growth is only being slowed by lack of storage. As battery production and other storage techniques come online, it allows higher and higher % of energy to come from renewable sources. >Don't know where that figure is from, but I guess china must be covered in solar panels by now. Pretty good summary of the situation here: [2] "In 2015, China installed half of the world’s wind power and a third of its solar photovoltaic capacity. Last year, solar capacity jumped 81.6 per cent and wind capacity grew 13.2 per cent. Greenpeace has said that China’s renewable energy growth rate is equivalent to installing one wind turbine and covering one soccer field with solar panels every hour. Five of the world’s top six solar manufacturing companies and five of the 10 biggest wind turbine companies are in China. By 2020, half of the country’s new electric generation will come from solar, wind, hydro and nuclear power." [1]https://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/2016/dec-energy-infrastructure.pdf https://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/2016/dec-energy-inf... [2]http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2017/03/03/will-china-take-the-green-mantle-from-the-u-s/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2017/03/03/will-china-take-the-...
  - legolas2412 10y ago
    USA is a saturated market, where renewables are given incentives by the government (unfortunately it won't be so any longer). Look at developing countries, only a fraction of new energy sources for India are solar, even though our coal is inferior quality. I'm pretty sure that coal is still cheaper than solar

by sxates 10y ago

legolas2412 10y ago

I think solar is the future, but these claims are stupid. > "to the point that it no longer makes sense to not have solar everywhere. It's cheaper than coal, and will soon be cheaper than all the other fossil fuels as well, and will continue to go down, never up." Then the market should automatically have shifted to 100% solar by now. Solar is getting cheaper yes, but it is dependent on hours of sunlight available, which like wind energy, is unreliable and doesn't work at periods (like night). Further, the capacity of a solar power plant isn't its produced electricity, because the capacity is mainly peak capacity, which is only reached a few hours a day. > China now employs over 1 million workers making solar panels Don't know where that figure is from, but I guess china must be covered in solar panels by now. 1 million is large number of people. Unless your figures are deceiving. For example, walmart sells solar panels. So, you will count every walmart employee as a solar panel retail employee.

sxates 10y ago
>Then the market should automatically have shifted to 100% solar by now. 65% of new capacity in the US last year was wind or solar.[1] The world doesn't change overnight, but expect that trend to continue. Renewable energy growth is only being slowed by lack of storage. As battery production and other storage techniques come online, it allows higher and higher % of energy to come from renewable sources. >Don't know where that figure is from, but I guess china must be covered in solar panels by now. Pretty good summary of the situation here: [2] "In 2015, China installed half of the world’s wind power and a third of its solar photovoltaic capacity. Last year, solar capacity jumped 81.6 per cent and wind capacity grew 13.2 per cent. Greenpeace has said that China’s renewable energy growth rate is equivalent to installing one wind turbine and covering one soccer field with solar panels every hour. Five of the world’s top six solar manufacturing companies and five of the 10 biggest wind turbine companies are in China. By 2020, half of the country’s new electric generation will come from solar, wind, hydro and nuclear power." [1]https://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/2016/dec-energy-infrastructure.pdf https://www.ferc.gov/legal/staff-reports/2016/dec-energy-inf... [2]http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2017/03/03/will-china-take-the-green-mantle-from-the-u-s/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2017/03/03/will-china-take-the-...
- legolas2412 10y ago
  USA is a saturated market, where renewables are given incentives by the government (unfortunately it won't be so any longer). Look at developing countries, only a fraction of new energy sources for India are solar, even though our coal is inferior quality. I'm pretty sure that coal is still cheaper than solar