Silicon Valley starts to turn its face to the sun

Some of the region's best minds are captivated by the challenge of solar power and hope to put the development of solar technologies on a faster track.
The New York Times

The story "Silicon Valley starts to turn its face to the sun" published February 17, 2008 at 10:30 AM is no longer available on CNET News.

Content from The New York Times expires after 7 days.

[Joe Real]

Price of Electricity saved not enough to pay itself off.

Even with subsidies, the current price of electricity produced of any solar panel in the market today is not enough to pay the effective APR of the total cost of the panels and its installation. It is a financial energy blackhole that will never pay itself off if you consider the interest rates either as loan or investment. You would be better off putting the money in a CD in most credit unions and earn more than enough money to pay your electric bills.

When the total cost of purchase and instllation price of solar panels comes down to about $1,500 per peak KW power generated or the prices of electricity have been jacked up by PG&E to about ten times than it is now, then and only then will I use solar panels.

The bottom line is that, today and even perhaps in the next 5 years, solar panels are not economically feasible given the alternatives.

When can Silicon Valley bring down the price to reasonable levels?