Alternative energy costs are dropping

[Daox]

A short but good article that sums up how solar PV has dropped an incredible amount in cost over the past years and how it competes with modern fossil fuel plants. Its pretty amazing how the oil price increase of 2008 cut the cost of solar panels in half!

Alternative energy costs are dropping

The upshot (see chart) is that the modules used to make solar-power plants now cost less than a dollar per watt of capacity. Power-station construction costs can add $4 to that, but these, too, are falling as builders work out how to do the job better. And running a solar power station is cheap because the fuel is free.

Coal-fired plants, for comparison, cost about $3 a watt to build in the United States, and natural-gas plants cost $1. But that is before the fuel to run them is bought.