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rid electricity prices are not fixed, but changing.  Over the past decade, electricity prices have risen, on average across the United States, 3 percent per year.  The solar electricity price is locked in once the panels are operating. Some utilities have time-of-use rates that charge more for electricity during peak times (hot, summer afternoons) that rise as high as 30 cents per kWh.  Solar competes favorably against these rates. There are federal, state and utility incentives for solar that reduce the cost.  The 30% federal tax credit, for example, is in statute until the end of 2016.

The first step is translating solar prices into electricity prices.  Installed costs for solar have dropped dramatically, from $8 to $10 per Watt just a few years ago to as low as $3.50 per Watt for utility-scale systems as just over $4 per Watt for residential systems.  But electricity isn't sold in Watts, but in kilowatt-hours (kWh).  So, solar installed at $3.50 per Watt in Minneapolis, MN, will produce electricity for about 23 cents per kWh.  In sunny Los Angeles, the same solar PV array would produce power at 19 cents per kWh, because the more abundant and direct sunshine would make 20% more solar electricity over the same time period.

by the time their solar PV systems are halfway to their expected life of 25 years, 45 million Americans (roughly 1 in 6) would have cheaper electricity from solar if they installed right now at $3.50 per Watt.

"Putting storage into the charger rather than using the vehicle for power to the home will preserve the life of the EV’s batteries and can capture cheaper energy even if the vehicle is not plugged in,"

These batteries could also be integration with a photovoltaics/solar power installation

prototype integrated solar-assisted electric vehicle charging station to be erected at the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)

Scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute in Freiburg are working on longer-term projects, from bendable solar panels to high-speed charging stations for electric cars that might one day act as a battery for the national grid.

“The energy overhaul is an epic project that will span many decades,”

The question isn’t if it’ll be deployed, but when.”

According to data from Pike Research’s annual Electric Vehicle Consumer Survey, the optimal price for a plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) to engage consumers is $23,750, but a quick pricing check reveals distance between want and reality: 2012 Toyota Prius PHEV ($32,000), the Honda Fit BEV ($36,625), and the Ford Focus EV ($39,995) (before federal incentives). These relatively high selling prices will constrain the market for PEVs in 2012. Nevertheless, the global market for plug-in electric vehicles will grow to more than a quarter million vehicles in 2012.

Car-sharing services will expand the market for EVs and hybrids. Battery production will outstrip vehicle production. The Asia-Pacific region will become the early leader in vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems. Third-party EV charging companies will dominate public charging sales. Employers will begin to purchase EV chargers in large numbers.  EVs will begin to function as home appliances. 

Cutting non-module solar PV costs with best design practices could make solar PV cost less than grid electricity for more than 25 percent of Americans.

how to reduce balance of system costs by 58 percent in five years.

They found that the balance of system savings (and induced reduction in module costs) could lower the price of solar PV electricity from 22 cents per kWh to 8 cents per kWh. 

University of Texas at Austin stating that one of its chemists has discovered a way that may allow solar panel efficiency to be doubled, possibly reaching as high as 66%

“At current, approximately 31% insolation-to-electricity efficiency of a silicon solar cell is considered to be the maximum in the solar industry,”

“Being able to cheaply double the efficiency and even being able to reach 66% efficiency could potentially erase the barriers of competing with cheap fossil fuels very quickly.”

A concentrating solar power plant has a capital cost of $5.50 per watt without storage, and $7.75 per watt with six hours of thermal storage. The levelized cost of electricity from a Mohave Desert concentrating solar power plant (without storage) serving Southern California load is $250 per megawatt-hour (MWh), or 25 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh).  With the federal investment tax credit, the price is 17.5 cents.* In contrast, a distributed solar PV plant has a capital cost of $3.80 per watt without storage and can add battery storage for $0.50 per watt. Thus, a PV plant with six hours of storage would cost $6.80 per watt. Because a distributed solar PV plant also has no need for long-distance transmission, the levelized cost of solar PV (without storage) in Southern California is $136 per MWh, or 13.6 cents per kWh (9.5 cents with the federal tax credit). The levelized cost for concentrating solar and solar PV with storage (and the federal tax credit) are 23 and 16.8 cents per kWh, respectively.

Using New South Wales as a baseline, the study estimates that the LCOE of non-tracking PV will fall by 48% from AUD$224 per MWh in 2012 to AUD$116 in 2030, and by 62% to AUD$86 in 2050.

“Currently, energy costs account for approximately 10 to 15 percent of all hotel expenses,”

By implementing solar cogeneration, we will be able to reduce our energy expenses and help the environment by reducing our consumption of traditional energy sources and our greenhouse gas emissions.”

An irradiation map tells you only the amount of input solar energy.

What is needed is not an irradiation map, but a solar PV economic map; a dynamic map that combines the relevant variables, keeps them current and accurately calculates consumer ROI by region – today and in the future

Solar PV cost is the discounted value of all generation costs, divided by the discounted value of all electricity generated over the operating life of the array. This expression is captured in the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) equation

By 2017, Pike Research forecasts that more than 1.5 million locations to charge vehicles will be available in the United States, with a total of nearly 7.7 million locations worldwide.

Dr. Hammond brings extensive experience in all areas of OPV, the underlying SolarWindow™ technology, including: the design and synthesis of small molecule and polymeric donor materials, the development of new solution-processed contact materials, the fabrication of OPV devices, large-area device fabrication using various coating methods, and the development of solution-processed flexible and transparent moisture barriers.

New Energy Technologies

Solar panel installations may surge in the next two years as the cost of generating electricity from the sun rivals coal-fueled plants, industry executives and analysts said.

Large photovoltaic projects will cost $1.45 a watt to build by 2020, half the current price, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimated today.

nstallation of solar PV systems will almost double to 32.6 gigawatts by 2013 from 18.6 gigawatts last year, New Energy Finance estimates.

“Not only is APS producing clean energy for the state through this program, they will provide cutting-edge solar education to students from ages five to 18,” said Robert Schaefer, CEO of AlsoEnergy. “The utility also will receive information through our energy management services that can compare operation between sites and detect underperforming components, providing real-time information to help them better serve their customers.”