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How could this affect US solar prices/watt over the next 10 years or so? People seem to be taking a "this could be good in the long run" approach but there seem

How could this affect US solar prices/watt over the next 10 years or so? People seem to be taking a "this could be good in the long run" approach but there seems to be evidence that we don't have a "long run" to tackle climate change [1]. We seem to be playing chicken with a freight train and hoping that the economics will allow us to survive (because capitalism is more important than survival, essentially). I'm not saying this is a bad move necessarily (I'm not entirely against protecting domestic industry to some extent), I'm just wondering if we were able to muster the collective will to take climate change seriously and do more than just let the market do its thing and hope for the best, how seriously could this affect the total cost? If we were to need to install 500GW of solar power over the next 5-10 years, would this dramatically increase the cost of that effort? Is it remotely possible that domestic production could accommodate a massive public push for solar?

brlewis 9y ago
"Panels account for about 40 percent of the cost of solar farms" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-22/itc-votes-in-favor-of-imposing-tariffs-on-u-s-solar-imports https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-22/itc-votes... If that's true, then 30% more expensive panels would increase the cost of a solar farm by 12%, falling to 30%/6% in 4 years.
umanwizard 9y ago
You forgot to include your footnote.
- okreallywtf 9y ago
  Sorry, it appears I can't edit it now. This is one of many accounts, you could take your pick, but at this point to have hope that things are going to turn out OK you have to ignore expert opinion and listen to conspiracy theorists essentially. For once, the doom-and-gloom predictions are coming from the mainstream and the "we'll be fine" predictions are coming from those on the fringes. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/05/carbon-emissions-must-be-cut-significantly-by-2020-says-un-report https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/05/carbon-e...

brlewis 9y ago

"Panels account for about 40 percent of the cost of solar farms" https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-22/itc-votes-in-favor-of-imposing-tariffs-on-u-s-solar-imports https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-09-22/itc-votes... If that's true, then 30% more expensive panels would increase the cost of a solar farm by 12%, falling to 30%/6% in 4 years.

umanwizard 9y ago

You forgot to include your footnote.

okreallywtf 9y ago
Sorry, it appears I can't edit it now. This is one of many accounts, you could take your pick, but at this point to have hope that things are going to turn out OK you have to ignore expert opinion and listen to conspiracy theorists essentially. For once, the doom-and-gloom predictions are coming from the mainstream and the "we'll be fine" predictions are coming from those on the fringes. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/05/carbon-emissions-must-be-cut-significantly-by-2020-says-un-report https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/05/carbon-e...