Time to install solar systems has finally come

Solar power is more popular than ever before, and now might be the best time for homeowners and businesses to install solar panels. The costs to install solar systems have fallen sharply in recent times. There is also an overwhelming support among general public to go for more clean energy with solar being the most preferred option of them all.

The interest rates for solar systems are fairly low, and after 2016, a federal tax credit of 30 percent of the cost of solar system will decline to ten percent, raising up the price of solar systems by an average of $3,600 more. In raw numbers, this adds five years to the time in which the system would pay for itself.

The prices of installing rooftop solar systems have been constantly declining while on the other hand the cost-effectiveness of solar systems is increasing, making solar power installations a viable economic option for many homeowners.

Switching to solar energy is no longer just a fashionable go-green option, it has also become a good way to save your money on the long run. It has been reported that thanks to rebates and incentives the cost of solar power has been reduced on average by 50.5 percent in the first half of 2015.

You don't have to buy if you don't have to. There is a growing number of companies that offer a leasing option. Combine this with federal, state, city and local tax incentives, and there should be a significant amount of money saved, especially on the long run.

The leasing option is popular option across the many U.S. states,  mostly because people are used to paying in a monthly fashion. This combined with fixed monthly rate gives consumers predictability, and that is something any homeowner wants.

There are plenty of reasons to go for solar energy so why not pay money now to save money on the long run?

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Is solar power still too expensive in United States?

Solar power industry is one of the fastest growing industries in the country but is solar power still too expensive for consumers across the United States? Overall, the prices of solar power installations have been steadily declining but general conclusion is that solar power systems are generally lot more expensive in United States than in much of the Europe.

The recent Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report which utilized data from more than 300,000 different residential, commercial, and utility-scale solar installations concluded that solar power prices in United States have fallen year-over-year by $0.7/W, or 12-15% depending on system size range.

Though this is positive trend, it is still considerably behind prices in major EU markets, most notably Germany and United Kingdom. This, however, has a lot to do with the very favorable solar power incentives in Germany and United Kingdom. For comparison purposes installed price of residential PV installations in 2013 was $2.1/W in Germany, while in United States the same price was $4.7/W.

The lowest median installed solar power prices in United States are not in California as many might think it is but in Florida. California has $4.9/W as compared to $3.3/W in Florida.

It also has to be said that according to this report the falling trend has continued through the first six months of 2014., declining in average $0.2/W to $0.5/W.

Is there a room for further decline in the upcoming years? Judging by the broad international experience the answer is yes, because many large European countries have significantly lower prices than those in United States. In 2013, United States added approximately 4,800 MW of new PV capacity, being the third largest PV market in the world, behind China and Japan.

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The "Chinese situation" on US solar energy market

China, the world's largest solar panel producer, is often taking their trade of solar panels into a gray area, with the most recent example being the official US investigation which showed that China had distributed solar panels onto the American energy market at illegally low prices.

In order to counteract these dumping methods the US Commerce Department plans to introduce much higher anti-dumping duties on Chinese solar panels at the end of July this year, in order to protect domestic manufacturing sector. These new duties should be 18-35% higher compared to the initial duties that were introduced in 2012.

It has been reported that 35.21 percent taxes will be placed on products by Wuxi Suntech Power, 18.56 on any imported material from Trina Solar, and 26.89 percent on other Chinese producers.

Whether this is the right move for US solar industry it is still too early to say. On one hand this could lead to a more developed domestic solar manufacturing sector but could also lead to, as critics argue, increase of solar power prices across the entire United States.

If this move should lead to higher solar power prices, it will slow down the transition to renewables in many of US states.  Not to mention it could also mean loss of many new jobs in US solar industry.

Chinese are, of course, angry with this proposed decision. and have stated that this decision will by no means help the development of US solar industry.

Anti-dumping measures against Chinese solar panels are not only the issue for United States. The same problem exists in European Union and their governing body decided to set a minimum price for panels and a volume limit through 2015.

The war on global solar energy market has started. The battle is on with the winner still unknown.

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Solar and wind are more cost-effective than coal and natural gas

One of the most often mentioned drawbacks of clean energy is cost-effectiveness with many energy experts claiming that power from clean energy sources such as solar and wind can only be cost-effective when helped by generous subsidies. The recent study published in the Springer's Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences disputes this opinion and claims that carbon pollution from power plants can be cut cost-effectively by using wind and solar energy.

This study argues that it is more cost-effective to get electricity from wind turbines and solar panels than coal-fired power plants when climate change costs and other health impacts are put in the total costs equation. The researchers used the official U.S. government estimates of health and environmental costs from burning fossil fuels and the conclusion of this study was that it is cheaper to replace a typical existing coal-fired power plant with a wind turbine than to keep the old plant running.

Another interesting point from this study was that the new electricity generation from wind turbines could be more economically efficient than natural gas. What this means is that the United States can reduce carbon pollution from power plants in a rather simple but yet cost-effective way, just by replacing coal-fired generation with cleaner options like wind, solar, and natural gas.

Many people still do not realize that burning coal is in fact a very expensive way to generate electricity and that there are more efficient and sustainable ways to generate power. By stepping away from coal fired power plants we can reduce health and climate change costs while in the same time cutting the dangerous carbon dioxide pollution which is driving global warming and climate change issue.

This latest study states that coal power plants are the nation's single largest source of such pollution, accounting for 40 percent of our national carbon footprint. The sad fact is that there are still no federal limits on the amount of carbon pollution coal fired power plants may release which is pretty much nonsense because government has limited the amount of mercury, arsenic, soot, and other harmful pollutants, meaning it is time to also limit carbon pollution.

President Obama has pledged to do that, by using his power under the Clean Air Act to set the first federal limits on the amount of carbon pollution power plants may release. There is however strong opposition coming from critics who claim that putting federal limits on coal fired power plants could raise costs. But, based on this latest study, it can actually reduce the total cost of electricity generation, rather than to increase it as critics argue.

Carbon pollution imposes economic costs by damaging public health and driving destructive climate change. The „social costs“of carbon are very high and there are also massive climate change costs connected with excessive carbon pollution. Climate change is contributing to record heat waves, floods, drought, wildfires and severe storms and these extreme weather events have already caused more than $140 billion in damages in 2012.

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Has solar energy already reached cost parity with fossil fuels?

Solar energy has enormous potential, and only a tiny fraction of totally available amount of solar energy would be enough to satisfy energy needs of entire world. The potential alone is however not enough for solar to rule the world, and prior to becoming dominant source of energy solar will have to achieve cost-parity with fossil fuels.

You don't have to be genius to realize that solar energy industry needs to develop cheap and efficient solar cells in order to dominate global energy market. New-generation solar cells include many different concepts and designs such as growing photovoltaic crystals, using carbon nanotubes, applying special coatings, and some scientific studies have looked very promising in taking us one step closer to the discovery of cheap and highly efficient solar cells.

In 2011, there was one very interesting study by the researchers from Michigan Technological University and Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. The researchers that were involved in this study claim that solar energy is already very close to achieving cost-parity with fossil fuels. They have concluded that on global level solar energy has costs under $1 per watt for solar panels purchased in bulk and that in some parts of the world solar energy is already economically more viable option than staying with fossil fuels.

The first thing that researchers made in this study was an exhaustive review of the previous studies connected with costs of solar power technologies. By reviewing these studies they discovered that factors such as costs to install and maintain the solar system, finance charges, longevity, and total electricity generation weren't accurate and that many of these studies did not include economic impact of solar energy benefits such in form of reduced pollution and greenhouse gas emission levels.

It's also true that in the last three years there was a huge decline in solar panel prices, between 50-70%. Solar energy industry is also one of the fastest growing industries in the world.

However, the dominant opinion is that solar energy sector still needs to significantly improve its cost-competitiveness because it is still not able to survive without the incentives.

The things are obviously moving in the right direction, and solar energy could soon become a major player in global energy market.

The real clean energy revolution will start once solar cells will become able to extract much more energy from the Sun that they can today. From the current perspective, it's difficult to predict when exactly can we expect this breakthrough in solar power technologies, and whether by then it will be too late for solar power to halt climate change impact or not.

Science has demanding task in finding the cost-effective technologies to convert much of the Sun's energy into electricity. With so many ongoing researches focused in this direction solar energy will hopefully soon discover its holy grail in form of cheap and highly efficient solar panels.

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