The cost of solar cells relative to fossil fuels (qualitatively)?

Question

The cost of solar cells relative to fossil fuels (qualitatively)?

Answer 1

After you buy a solar cell, it makes power for a long time without anything added to it.  If it cost $1k, after it makes $1k in power then it's free and we all like free.

With coal, gas, oil, nuclear you keep added to the mess.

Answer 2

One way to compare at least initial cost and magnitude is to compare building a 1000 MW Power Plant to trying to produce the same power with Solar Cels. One cell is about 3X4, or 12 SQ FT and it will produce say 100 watts for only about 6 hrs/day peak(actually produces longer, but is peak only a couple so 6 is a good avg. for peak. This one cel then will produce about 600 Watt-hrs per day. The 1000 MW plant will produce 24,000 MEGA Watts (24,000,000,000 Watts)per day. I would then need about 40 million of these Solar panels at around $300 each, or 12 Billion dollars. I can build many Power plants for this.It would need a space of about 2.0 square miles of just for the panels. The Power plant requires a relatively small area and cost maybe 150 million.

The "Environmentalist" will say the solar is cheaper because the power is free after it is built. Not true, because even Solar requires maintenance and has a life failure rate. Lets assume it cost nothing. The interest only on the initial investment is over 500 million dollars a year at 5% interest.

Not sure if that is good or not, but certainly not free.