A new study commissioned by Sunrun finds that a whopping 97% of Americans overestimate the upfront cost of installing rooftop solar panels. Meanwhile, of course, 8 out of 10 of those without solar say they would install it if cost weren’t a factor. The study was conducted online by … [continued]
No doubt, you’ve heard about Germany’s likely decision to quickly and severely cut its solar PV feed-in tariff policy, a world-leading solar policy that has made Germany a solar power hero of sorts. A friend recently shared a story by Bjørn Lomborg on these cuts with me and asked me for … [continued]
Did you know that the landing on the moon was staged? Or that swallowing seeds will cause fruit to grow in your stomach? Or that the cost of solar power has gone up 63% since 2001?
If you are tied to reality, you’d know that all three of these statements are utterly false. And while most people know that the moon landing was real and that seeds don’t grow in your stomach, the last falsity is an easy one to slip by people who don’t follow energy — which is almost everyone.
In fact, the installed cost of solar has come down nearly 40% since 2001. […]
(Editor’s note: this is NOT even taking health, energy security, and environmental costs into account — not what this study is about — and it STILL finds that solar has reached grid parity in many places!) The real cost of implementing solar power is being deliberately hidden from the … [continued]
Content on this page requires a newer version of Adobe Flash Player. Update (December 2011): A recent study does a great job explaining how analysts systematically overestimate the costs of solar and also points out that solar has hit grid parity in some regions. Nonetheless, even this study doesn’t take … [continued]
A recent industry analysis by Lux Research projects the amount of solar power installed is to grow 15.5 percent per year, but revenues are to stay flat, until 2016. A report from Navigant Consulting discovered that the price of solar panels is down almost 20 percent as of August 2011. The information derived from these two reports show that the consumer is poised to benefit from the price reduction, while manufacturers can expect an almost flat profit margin for the next few years.
There are some very widespread and incorrect conceptions about renewable energy sources. I mention and discuss some of the most common ones below.
At Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s annual conference in New York this week, industry executives and representatives indicated that solar power installations are going to continue growing rapidly and the cost of solar, which may soon be competitive with the cost of coal in general, is low enough in some regions that it is already competing with coal.
Along with cleantech politics news and other cleantech news from the past week or so, here’s some news on wind and solar energy that we haven’t covered. Ted Turner’s Solar Plant Begins Commercial Operation Founder of CNN Ted Turner has announced that the 30-MW solar power plant developed and built … [continued]
