Brutal Solar Industry Price Wars Putting Grid Parity Within Reach

摘要

Last week's Energy Stat of the Week from Raymond James reminded me of my first computer. It was actually a glorified (pre-Word) word processor utilizing arcane DOS commands. That cranky piece of junk cost about $3,500, or more than $6,500 adjusted for inflation. One can only imagine the kind of computer you could buy for that kind of money today, and it shows how better manufacturing technology and scale can bring down costs. And advances being made by the photovoltaic (PV) industry are bringing down costs at a clip; so fast, in fact, that Raymond James analysts Pavel Molchanov and Cory Garcia now expect PV generation to reach grid parity next year in the most expensive markets and attain widespread grid parity in 2012.