One Third of Americans Reach Solar Grid Parity by 2021

[roberte]

One Third of Americans Reach Solar Grid Parity by 2021

The solar opportunity is driven by converging economics: the installed cost of solar has fallen 10% per year since 2006 and grid electricity prices have averaged a 2% annual increase in the last decade.
Nearly 100 million Americans could install over 60,000 megawatts of solar at less than grid prices – without subsidies – by 2021.

If the trends continue, there may be an outbreak of economical solar. The following chart illustrates the number of Americans (from the top 40 metropolitan areas) that would be at solar grid parity and the potential amount of solar capacity that could be added to the grid at less than retail electricity prices in the next decade. Nearly 100 million Americans could install over 60,000 megawatts of solar at less than grid prices – without subsidies – by 2021.

http://energyselfreliantstates.org/c...ve-local-solar

[fugacity]

economics is all green energy has ever needed. big oil couldn't stop true cheap, clean energy once it was a reality.

[Colleen27]

We're likely to be part of that "outbreak". DH is eagerly awaiting Dow's solar shingles to become available in our state and is planning on taking their contractor seminar as soon as it is offered locally. We're planning to use our house as a test installation before encouraging customers to look into them, but we've had a number of people ask about them already. The price is competitive with a good theoretical payback period, and I'm very eager to see how they produce in real-world residential applications.

[RozieDozie]

This would be a game changer. The Chinese have being striving for solar power supremacy.

Let's hope that American solar energy becomes as popular as the cell phone did. In a very short time, we went from 'who wants a cell phone' to 'I NEED a cell phone....'.

[FAADAN]

Originally Posted by Colleen27

We're likely to be part of that "outbreak". DH is eagerly awaiting Dow's solar shingles to become available in our state and is planning on taking their contractor seminar as soon as it is offered locally. We're planning to use our house as a test installation before encouraging customers to look into them, but we've had a number of people ask about them already. The price is competitive with a good theoretical payback period, and I'm very eager to see how they produce in real-world residential applications.

Might be a good tax edge for you if you use your house as an advertising tool. From what I have been able to learn about solar, it isn't just the generation of the wattage that is a problem. Storage and conversion to useable power is a problem too. Batteries are expensive and it takes a bunch to store much power. Conversion from DC to AC, our national standard, is also a problem.

[fugacity]

Originally Posted by FAADAN

Might be a good tax edge for you if you use your house as an advertising tool. From what I have been able to learn about solar, it isn't just the generation of the wattage that is a problem. Storage and conversion to useable power is a problem too. Batteries are expensive and it takes a bunch to store much power. Conversion from DC to AC, our national standard, is also a problem.

That's kind of THE problem. We'd be way farther ahead on this if storage and transport from generation to point of use was easy. Think about hydro (I know ya'll deal with this in you neck o' the woods - at least when I want to do trout fishing down there it's always a pain) they generate when they need it. If they could run a fixed generation to store power they'd never have to turn Taneycomo from a waedeble ozark stream into a major roaring river, thuse ending a day of flyfishing for suckers like me.

[older than dirt]

When solar is even close to the same price as on the grid power i'll be on solar faster that you can say crazy religious gun nut.
I want power 24 hrs a day & enough to run my 1 1/2 horse deep well pump I water crops with . When you get the sun to shine all night so I can run the pump I'll be on it like stink on poooo.

[roberte]

Originally Posted by older than dirt

When solar is even close to the same price as on the grid power i'll be on solar faster that you can say crazy religious gun nut.
I want power 24 hrs a day & enough to run my 1 1/2 horse deep well pump I water crops with . When you get the sun to shine all night so I can run the pump I'll be on it like stink on poooo.

So, we have a date for you to "be on solar faster" since that is the topic of the thread.

And here is your solar nighttime power:

Advancing Distributed Energy Storage
February 27, 2012

Photo of a metal container with multiple rows of square batteries, switches, and handles.

RES units include batteries for storage and monitors for data collection.
Photo from Ed Sanchez/SMUD

Meeting the challenges of partly cloudy days, peak electricity demands, and occasional power outages

Imagine having a refrigerator-sized battery in your garage that stored solar-generated electricity so you could use it any time you needed. If your utility asked, would you be part of such an innovative pilot?

Last spring, that’s what the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) asked residents of the Anatolia SolarSmart Homes Community.

“We thought it would be a challenge to find participants who would give up such coveted garage space, but the positive response was overwhelming,” said Jay Paidipati, Navigant analyst who is working with SMUD to gather data for the pilot. “We were pleasantly surprised to find it was one of the easiest aspects of the pilot, which is one of the first of its kind in the country.”

https://solarhighpen.energy.gov/arti...energy_storage

[Colleen27]

Originally Posted by older than dirt

When solar is even close to the same price as on the grid power i'll be on solar faster that you can say crazy religious gun nut.
I want power 24 hrs a day & enough to run my 1 1/2 horse deep well pump I water crops with . When you get the sun to shine all night so I can run the pump I'll be on it like stink on poooo.

This is the sort of thing I was thinking of when I commented on the other thread about Americans looking at alternative energy as all or nothing. Why not "settle" for solar during the day, effectively generating your own power at peak demand times when existing grid capacity is strained to the limit by people running their air conditioning and powering their offices, and then rely on the grid by night when consumption falls and current capacity can adequately manage the load? If grid-tied solar becomes cost-competitive widespread use could easily head off the need to construct additional coal or nuclear plants to meet growing energy demands.

[Colleen27]

Originally Posted by FAADAN

Might be a good tax edge for you if you use your house as an advertising tool. From what I have been able to learn about solar, it isn't just the generation of the wattage that is a problem. Storage and conversion to useable power is a problem too. Batteries are expensive and it takes a bunch to store much power. Conversion from DC to AC, our national standard, is also a problem.

Inverter technology on grid connected systems is advancing right alongside the solar generation technology itself. Right now there are limits in terms of how much decentralized generation the grid can handle in total and that will have to be addressed for long term solar growth, but on the individual scale hooking a solar array into the household system and the grid isn't particularly problematic (though it is the largest expense of installation).

Storage is more problematic but that's not something I'm worried about right now. We've never lost power for more than an hour in 3 years of living here. We don't plan on a battery array at all; we'll tie the solar system into the grid and continue to count on our generator to keep a few essentials running if we do lose power for an extended time.