Solar power costs have been coming down for decades. That long and significant trend has already led to solar power becoming the cheapest option for new electricity in the world — in the history of the world . However, that doesn’t mean it’s the cheapest in every location and every situation, and it doesn’t mean that a new solar power plant is going to be cheaper than getting electricity from an existing fossil fuel power plant. So, there is more work to be done! For starters, though, let’s take a look at this beautiful graphic below showing the average costs of solar modules in the U.S. from 2006 through 2019 (graph on right) and U.S. solar module shipments from 2006 through 2019 (chart on left): Impressive, no? Yet there’s still room to improve, and the US Department of Energy (DOE) would like to do so. Shooting for the Sun (or 2¢/kWh) The DOE aims to cut utility-scale solar power plant costs by 60% by 2030, according to a new cost-reduction target announced by the agency earlier today (March 26, 2021). In order to help the price-reduction trend move along, the DOE is committing another $126 million into wide-ranging pathways […]
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