Electricity from a newly built coal plant would be considerably more expensive than solar, even without external costs included. Many of our coal plants are old and wearing out, they will have to be replaced.

In no way is solar going bust anywhere. There was some shakeout in panel manufacturing as the more efficient manufacturers forced out the less efficient but those days are past. Solar is taking off like a rocket.

In the US subsidies will decrease in a couple of years. That will not be a problem for the solar industry.

Solar doesn’t need to supply 24 hours a day. The old idea of “baseload” is going away. The new grid is about providing electricity when it is needed and supplying it with the cheapest sources. Wind is already cheaper than gas and solar is getting there. When wind and solar aren’t providing grid managers will use the cheapest other source available.

Lot of installers opting to use US subsidies on purchase cheap imported Chinese solar panels over the American counterpart locally made photovoltaic, a quick rich green schemes that made massive amounts of profit for the installer, but not for the local economy in the US.

Long time the utility providers has been warning of a bust within the solar industry, the viability of solar energy was always going to be unsustainable and heavy subsidisation only kept the industry afloat, and if it was not for coal and gas power generation are the only viable industry is keeping the solar industry alive through their carbon based load power generation. The major problem within the solar industry it cannot stand on its own 2 feet to produce base load energy 24 hours a day as been proven time and time again.

When it comes to power generation there is no competition against coal and gas power generation, solar power will never be a viable industry as is going bust right around the world, until they find the dinotopia light crystal as in the movie that can power whole city from one little light crystals stone, and then I believe it. Until then it’s a failure.