Are Solar Panels Cheaper Than Electricity

But what about the cost of going solar.

Are solar panels cheaper than electricity. Solar panels generate their own power and can therefore greatly offset your monthly electricity bill if not eliminate it. According to the world economic forum wef installing new solar panels is cheaper than a comparable investment in coal natural gas or other fossil fuel options. In just 25 years china has gone from having no solar panels to 100 per cent more than any other country. Today energy companies are developing solar pv projects that can deliver energy at half the cost of coal and that s without factoring in the costly negative impacts of coal such as heavy carbon pollution strip mining and mountaintop removal.

In the example i just gave the city of palo alto is buying subsidized electricity at 7 with an unsubsidized cost of 12 per kwh. Many people ask when the cost of producing power from solar photovoltaic pv panels will be equal to or less than buying from the grid a point called grid parity that could accelerate solar. That makes them cheaper than new coal and gas plants in two thirds of the world according to bloombergnef. China s solar power is now cheaper than grid electricity scientists reveal.

That s why i prefer to talk about unsubsidized solar parity when the consumer can buy solar electricity priced without subsidies for less than power from their utility. Solar got cheap said jenny chase an analyst at bnef. Clearly solar power is more cost effective than regular or standard electricity. As a result the discussion of whether solar is cheaper than coal has already become an outdated debate.

New wind and solar power is cheaper than existing coal in much of the u s analysis finds in all 74 of coal plants cost more to run than building new wind or solar analysts found. And hydropower may be even cheaper than what the eia says. More than three times less than solar thermal power. That s less than half the cost of electricity generated from ordinary solar panels.

If a risk premium is applied wind and solar plus back up remains unambiguously cheaper than coal as a source of energy. It s really that.