Solar to Reach Price Parity with Oil, Gas

Just a few years back it would have been hard to believe that solar would be an affordable source of energy.
Solar to Reach Price Parity with Oil, Gas
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks at Sempra U.S. Gas & Power's Copper Mountain Solar 1 facility, the largest photovoltaic solar plant in the United States on March 21, 2012 in Boulder City, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
1/21/2015
Updated:
7/18/2015

Just a few years back it would have been hard to believe that solar would be an affordable source of energy.

Despite the obvious attractiveness of an energy harnessed from the benevolent sun, the reality of solar is that it is a huge upfront investment, and it take batteries, convertors, and a lot of wrangling to hook up to the grid.

Well, a new report by Deutsche Bank says solar electricity is on track to be as cheap or cheaper than the average prices in 47 U.S. states by 2016. The news was reported by Bloomberg.

President Obama, well aware that solar’s time has time, tipped his hat to it at during the State of the Union, stating: “Every three weeks, we bring online as much solar power as we did in all of 2008.”

Solar’s success, despite some of its high profile setbacks such as the $535 million waste in government subsidies on the bankruptcy of Solyndra, continues to be heavily subsidized in the United States.

Thirty percent of the cost of setting up the solar arrays is returned as a tax credit. This subsidy is set to expire in 2016.

Regardless of subsidy, Bloomberg notes that solar energy generation will continue to dominate, because it is a technology, and technologies tend to decrease in costs over time.

The Deutsche Bank report states that solar has already reached grid parity in the 10 states that are responsible for 90 percent of U.S. solar production.