PV Gap

Tyrone Said:

what exactly makes solar panels SO expensive? is it a complot?

We Answered:

And VCR's were $1,500 back in the early 80's but you can't even give them away now. There's no conspiracy and it isn't the material that makes something expensive but the work that goes into it. The price of solar panels will come down as manufacturing steps up and manufacturing will step up as demand goes up so there has to be some people willing to pay the high prices now so that the rest of us can enjoy the low prices tomorrow.

Keep in mind that the cost of solar panels are capital costs not operational costs so even at todays high prices, it's remarkably inexpensive per unit of energy over the life of the panel.

Current photo-voltaic efficiency records are 42.8% whereas photosynthesis has a maximum theoretical efficiency of 6.6%. What makes energy from photosynthesis so inexpensive (and yes fossil fuels are energy from photosynthesis collected over millions of years) is that it literally grows on trees and the trees aren't union workers.