undefined | Better HN

0 pointstoomuchtodo9y ago0 comments

Not really a constraint anymore. With solar as low as $20/MW ($0.02/kwh), battery storage isn't so exorbitant when complementing solar (Tesla has batteries under $190/kwh, and that's before the Gigafactory is fully ramped) insert To The Moon ASCII here.

Texas currently has the lowest price per watt in the entire country [1] (and that's just solar, they have so much wind power they can't get out of the state due to transmission lines being under construction, some utilities are giving wind power away for free during nighttime hours), the cost of solar continues to plummet [2], and India is going all out to provide solar to homes (its cheaper than coal based on their economics). [3]

New York is about to start a program to give solar generation systems away for free to middle class families [4].

Nuclear was once thought of as an energy source "too cheap to meter" [5]; solar is going to deliver on that.

[1] http://cleantechnica.com/2016/04/30/texas-solar-prices-curre...

[2] http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/i-was-wrong-abou...

[3] http://www.sciencealert.com/india-says-the-cost-of-solar-pow...

[4] http://greenenergychronicles.com/index.php/2015/05/26/new-yo...

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Too_cheap_to_meter

0 comments

ams61109y ago

My electric bill just isn't a big enough factor in my budget to think seriously about giving up the proven reliability and availability of utility power. Even if electricity were free, it's a big and costly problem when it's not available.

So I have no interest in a personal household solar system and bank of batteries in the basement. And for the Alternative Energy Solar Project prediction that "it could save individual families up to $2,400" seems a stretch -- my annual utility electric costs aren't anywhere near that in a middle-class home.

toomuchtodoOP9y ago

You don't give up utility power, but that's besides the point. Its already happening one roof at a time (per my citations), and will continue to accelerate as solar costs continue to decline.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse