How Cheap Can We Get Solar?

You can win big.  The savings are here. The winning is abundant. Some people think people whom can befriend animals are winners as well.  Have you ever seen the way James "Grizzly" Adams interacts with Gentle Ben the grizzly bear on the number one television show of the 70's?  That's a winning situation.  Also, another winning situation is the current price of solar. It's a great time to win and go solar.  The price of solar panels has fallen considerably and fast. But the Energy Department (DOE) wants to bring those expenses down even further, especially for domestic homes. After all, studies have determined that if every inch of useable rooftop in the US had solar panels on it, the panels could produce about 40 percent of the nation's energy demand. Right now, the DOE's goal is domestic solar that fetches 5¢ per kilowatt-hour by 2030.

In The Future Of Solar

What if the future was all solar?  Would climate change reverse? What would it look like to have a solar panel on every roof in the US? Here is some information as to what would happen if that was the case.  In total, experts estimate that there are over 8 billion square meters of proper roofs and in the US. Cover that in solar panels would produce about 1,400 terawatt hours of power each year—about two-thirds of which would stem from small domestic buildings.  What a difference that would make!

National Renewable Energy Laboratory  

Also in the news, a release from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), researchers planned out some potential pathways to that goal. Notably, the biggest barriers to cost decrease appear to be the unreasonable "soft costs" of solar installation. Those soft costs combine supply chain costs, labor costs, and sales and purchasing costs that aren't associated with the physical production of solar cells at a facility where they are built.

National Renewable Energy Laboratory writes: "Because the 2030 target likely will not be achieved under business-as-usual trends, we examine two key market segments that demonstrate significant opportunities for cost savings and market growth: installing PV at the time of roof replacement and installing PV as part of the new home construction process."

The article outlined out two "visionary" pathways (as well as two "less-aggressive' pathways) to realizing those cost reductions within the roof replacement and new home installation markets. The result? The only way National Renewable Energy Laboratory decided it could achieve the "visionary" cost decreases was by assuming that solar installers would start peddling low-cost solar-integrated roof tiles prior to 2030, "which could significantly reduce supply chain, installation labor, and permitting costs."

Speaking of lowered costs, check out HahaSmart.com, try our price checker tool, and see how low they can get your energy bill. You can see how much you can save over the next 20 years by going solar, and we can help find local solar installers who can help.