Can Solar Costs Keep Shrinking?

https://unchartedterritories.tomaspueyo.com/p/can-solar-costs-keep-shrinking

by keanwood

10 comments

  1. How long of a run did Moore’s Law have? 40, 50 years? Longer than I predicted, that’s for sure.

  3. Most of the cost of installing solar isn’t the panels. It’s parts and labor.

    There is still some potential for savings with thin film and spray-on solar, but from a purely panel point of view there isn’t a lot of savings to be had anymore. In any case it’s dirt cheap already (considerably cheaper than any other type of power production) so further cost reductions aren’t really needed because it’s the number 1 go-to if you want to build a power plant.

  4. Article lost me when it started arguing that we’d be richer if we increased our energy use.

    edit because I’m not going to have 30 separate arguments: The article started arguing that increasing energy use *causes* us to be richer. If that was the case then I simply suggest you open all your windows while your AC/heat runs until you’re filthy rich. Correlation is not causation.

  5. The first flat screen TVs were like $5 grand, now you can get a decent size one $300, and that’s not factoring inflation. So yes, t he more solar is installed, the cheaper it will get.

  6. Solar costs have ticked up so it’s hard to say, we may need decent robotic labor automation to get another aggressive cost decline and maybe add move wavelength ranges like nasa does with multi junction panels in space. Though deep well geothermal may also start to become practical, especially with automation eventually lowering costs. we can probably make deep well geothermal last longer than solar panels so you may eventually see a significant benefit. Plus, of course you don’t need the attic complexity of energy storage or much rare material.

  7. 5 years I got a quote for panels that was 90k without battery backups. We just signed a contract for installing 48 panels 2 batteries for 32k..

  8. I can’t believe that the entirety of America’s new electricity in 2024 came from solar, wind, or batteries, and Americans just pissed that progress away… 

  9. The cost of panels are already a small part of the total cost, it is often less than 25%. 

    So the answer is no, even if the panels are free, you will only see 25%-35% off (depending on your system size and installer markup)

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