Solar Power Costs - What Everyone Will Need To Know


 

There are 2 main factors that govern solar power cost and they are quite simply, the assembly cost of the solar power panels and the installation cost of the solar system in the home.

Solar power panels may be green, eco-friendly and help to save our planet but until they can be competitive in the energy market place they will never be extensively used. A new coal-burning plant can easily deliver electricity at $2 per watt and so this is the benchmark figure that the solar experts want to match.

For the past 20 years scientists have been developing ingenious and cheaper designs of solar power panels. It is the Silicone based solar photovoltaic panels that have dominated the industry and sell for about $3 a watt, however this is before installation.

For some time there was an actual scarcity of silicone and although the interest in solar panels was growing, the solar panel suppliers were not able to meet that demand. Today even though there is an ample supply of silicone, nevertheless the operation of refining it to make the semiconductors is a costly process and there are not many companies that do this. The handful of factories that are able to produce this refined silicone have a monopoly on the supply meaning that even though the demand is high they still keep the price inflated.

The price of refined silicone is one of the key elements in the cost of solar panels. The key thrust of research taking place today is in developing ways to reduce the quantity of silicone that is needed to produce a solar panel. There is also investigation taking place in using alternative less expensive materials which are equally effective. There are certain organic materials which have semiconductor properties which may be used rather than silicone.

The expense of installation will change quite dramatically depending on whether you do it by yourself or if you call in an experienced installer. To install a solar power system in your home using a professional installer will cost you between $10 - $12 per watt. If you install the solar system by yourself then it should probably cost you about $4 per watt.

Whilst the initial expense of installation of a home solar energy system would still be fairly expensive there is no doubt that in the near future, given the astounding advancements that are happening, the cost should come down. In the mean time, government authorities all over the world are encouraging and subsidizing the use of this technology by offering tax rebates and credits for home owners who install solar energy systems.

So if you set up your solar energy system by yourself at the cost of about $4 per watt and claim all the tax savings and credits that are offered in your area, then your solar power cost may not be so far from the $2 per watt standard of the electricity delivered by the coal-burning plant.

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