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> Make Solar Energy Economical Isn’t it already?
by darth_avocado 2mo ago
> Make Solar Energy Economical
Isn’t it already?
- Marha01 2mo agoNot enough. The more economical it is, the better.
- omnimus 2mo agoThe paradox of solar is that more economical it is for the end users the less money is there to be made. So nobody wants to invest in it.
- gowld 2mo agoThat's solved by either private monopoly charging money to fund investment, or public monopoly raising taxes to fund investment.
- wcfrobert 2mo agoThis was basically solved by massive subsidies from the Chinese government. https://e360.yale.edu/digest/china-clean-tech-developing-countries https://e360.yale.edu/digest/china-clean-tech-developing-cou...
- ares623 2mo agoJust make oil uneconomical
- glenstein 2mo agoDefinitely pretty far along imo. But maybe they consider the progress bar to be at 75% or 80% rather than 100%.
- frollogaston 2mo agoPeople on HN keep saying it is, but I'm still not seeing it. Companies are building datacenters in vast, sun-blasted deserts and still choosing to power those with natural gas. This in turn makes people complain about emissions pledges being reversed, but if it were economical, no pledge would be needed. Of course, USA has cheaper oil/gas than other countries. But if you look elsewhere, rich countries are subsidizing solar, poor ones are basically not using it.
- jarpschope 2mo agoI don't think you have an updated view of energy production. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/07/20/how-global-energy-production-is-changing-in-6-charts/ https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/07/20/how-globa... In the chart for section 3, how many countries have seen their share of electricity being generated by fossil fuels increase in the last 5 years? Only Canada. Take a look at the charts for Pakistan, Australia, Nigeria, and China for the last few years. Pretty dramatic drops for fossil fuels generation.
- frollogaston 2mo agoThey cherrypicked 15 countries. And still, some of those still had renewables decrease since 2000 like Nigeria, others saw an increase but it's still way less than fossil, and others like China are heavily subsidizing solar. I don't doubt that it's economical for individuals when the govt is subsidizing it.
- blahblaher 2mo agoLook at Australia then. Millions of homes already using solar yo basically power their homes for free most of the time. Yes it was subsidized, like oil was and still is. Solar without subsidies is already miles better than oil and gas.
- frollogaston 2mo agoAustralia is a rich country that subsidizes solar, and they're still 90% fossil according to their Wikipedia article, so idk why the mismatch with this article.
- FriedFishes 2mo agoSounds like a perfect opportunity to put in an edit with the Wikipedia page then :)
- deleted 2mo ago
- newyankee 2mo agoProbably want to jump 1 generation ahead directly compared to captive Chinese investment with fully automated US factories churning out Silcon perovskite tandem panels directly with few inputs and electricity
- scottyah 2mo agoNot really, even the best systems have like a 10yr break-even period. And I live in a place with some of the highest residential electricity rates in the continental United States.