Economics of solar power?

Question

Is solar going to become an affordable alternative soon? How cheap does it need to get? Is it typically calculated as cost per watt, or? How much electic does the typical home use? Any insight would be apreciated.

Answer 1

solar power is still a new technology.  companies that are pursuing it aggressively  are for the most part small and arent selling a large volume.  low sales means the company must have a high profit margin to survive, this translates into high prices for the equipment.  when other forms of energy become to expensive more people will turn to solar allowing the manufacturers to invest in more efficient processes allowing them to charge less for their product.  copper is also very expensive at the moment. (used in high quality solar panels)

how cheap? i have no idea.  maybe the price of coal needs to get higher! LOL

Answer 2

Try the following:

http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/tracer-bul...

http://www.solarelectricpower.org/

http://library.thinkquest.org/17658/sol/...

http://www.pickocc.org/publications/rene...

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/solar/resou...

Answer 3

This site has a lot of useful information on Solar energy (both Active and Passive)

http://www.ecohousefootprint.com/solar.h...