[thackney]

excerpted for Wall Street Journal

[rstrahan]

As an appraiser, had the opportunity to do a study of the value of a rooftop solar system. Going in cost was $42K. Present value of the return over normal,holding period of a home was $7K. The only thing that made these systems viable was the subsidy for purchase, which would cover approximately 3/4 of the cost.

[sphinx]

On average, utility-scale solar plants nationwide still cost about 13 cents per kilowatt-hour, versus around six cents per kilowatt-hour for coal and natural gas, according to the Lazard study.

Not very many years ago, solar was 10x higher than conventional power, so that is tremendous progress. Solar isn't there yet, but I am all in favor of silver bullet solutions, and solar may get over the hump. I also expect that third generation feedstocks for biofuels will become cost competitive in the next ten years.

[NewHampshireDuo]

We have several panels on our roof. The idea was never to save money - only to have backup power for some critical items if the power went out. Didn’t go overboard with capacity and never even thought about a subsidy.

[Vaquero]

I'll wait for the real deal, thank you very much

[Hotlanta Mike]

Elon Musk’s Grand Plan to Power the World With Batteries

http://www.wired.com/2015/05/tesla-batteries/

[Buckeye McFrog]

Don’t confuse us with economics, there’s a planet to be saved here. /s

[moehoward]

An op-ed written by Mr Burns…