economics of solar power?

Question

Is solar going to become an affordable alternative soon? How cheap does it need to get? Is it typically calculated as cost per watt, or? How much electic does the typical home use? Any insight would be apreciated.

Answer 1

solar power is still a new technology. companies that are pursuing it aggressively are for the most part small and arent selling a large volume. low sales means the company must have a high profit margin to survive, this translates into high prices for the equipment. when other forms of energy become to expensive more people will turn to solar allowing the manufacturers to invest in more efficient processes allowing them to charge less for their product. copper is also very expensive at the moment. (used in high quality solar panels)

how cheap? i have no idea. maybe the price of coal needs to get higher! LOL

Answer 2

Solar panels are typically calculated as cost per watt, solar panels are economic,you just need to pay for soilar panels at first purchase,you need not to pay electricity bill in next days,nowadays,government encourage people to use solar energy,and there are different sunsidies for solar energy.what is important,solar energy will reduce carbon emissiom to protect our envrionment.

Answer 3

This site has a lot of useful information on Solar energy (both Active and Passive)
http://www.ecohousefootprint.com/solar.html

Answer 4

now solar power is very ecnomic. five kilowatt photovoltaic system about forty to fifty square meter you just need invest fifty thousand yuan more or less in China. the system can produce about twenty degree electricity one day and seven thousand three hundred degree electricity. you can benifit twenty five years. and the money you invest you can get back in six to ten years.

Answer 5

Build Solar Power Easily : http://Solar.eudko.com/?HtC

Answer 6

affordable solar panels coming soon
In 2014, the average annual electricity consumption for a U.S. residential utility customer was 10,932 kilowatthours (kWh), an average of 911 kWh per month. Louisiana had the highest annual consumption at 15,497 kWh per residential customer, and Hawaii had the lowest at 6,077 kWh per residential customer.

Answer 7

Try the following:
http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/tracer-bullets/solartb.html

http://www.solarelectricpower.org/

http://library.thinkquest.org/17658/sol/solhistoryht.html

http://www.pickocc.org/publications/renewable_energy/Solar_Power.pdf

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/solar/resources.html