Electricity Prices ($/k Wh)
c-Si
CIGS
CdTe
α-Si
0.30
0.25
Solar PV Industry Outlook
0.20
Convergence
0.15
7%
6%
5%
4%
0.10
0.05
US – Average price of electricity
in 2006: 8. 6 cents/k Wh
Source: Stephen O’Rourke
’06
widespread grid parity for solar energy.”
“Innovation costs money,” Mints added. “R&D requires
investment. It also requires investment on the demand side and
I can tell you right now, there’s a squeeze those margins too. It’s
not healthy.”
In addition to the issues of cost and innovation, government
subsidies — or lack thereof — continue to be just as critical to
the growth of the solar industry. “It’s not a balanced industry
right now,” Mints said, noting that conventional energy producers
continue to enjoy incentives and subsidies, while those of solar
are in seemingly constant jeopardy. “I know those who say there
should be no subsidies for any energy. If it were an even play-
ing feld, we’d see a completely different battle. I think we’d have
less pressure. You never see a conventional energy producer hav-
ing to fght so hard to keep their direct and indirect subsidies.
Just because it has always been that way doesn’t mean it always
needs to be that way.”
Mints stressed that although she supports Department of
Energy (DOE) programs that focus on innovation, there remains
a great need for continued subsidies. “I don’t know that it’s time
for us to give up the fght on at least pointing out that it’s an
unfair battle. I also don’t like the term grid parity — because if
we’re at parity with subsidized energy source, how fair is that?”
Solar Demand on the Rise
Regardless of whether the pursuit of solar is the right thing to
do for the planet or the smart thing to do for the wallet, none
of that really matters if there is no interest among the populace
for adopting solar as an
alternative to fossil fuel elec-
tricity generation. The good
news for solar proponents
is that demand in the U.S. is
rising. According to Le, U.S.
deployment of solar was at
around 435 MW in 2009. In
2012, those numbers were in
excess of 3 GW.
