Support our work today! Advertise with CleanTechnica to get your company in front of millions of monthly readers. In the U. Globally, this date also has significance in various In terms of total emissions from to present, the US May this be recognized in coming decades as a significant moment in climate action, as it comes to pass without political disfunction in either Sustainable Solutions.
Connect with us. Hi, what are you looking for? Misleading Metrics Additionally, some of metrics, like energy payback, seem to be questionable in the way they are used by solar power critics and climate change deniers. Have a tip for CleanTechnica, want to advertise, or want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here. Twitter LinkedIn Facebook. Written By Jake Richardson. Helps Everybody Out. The analysis referred to subsidy-free solar power, and used various standard assumptions regarding cost projections, system financing and residential power prices.
We expected, as a rule of thumb, that once payback periods fell below 10 years, households would increasingly feel comfortable installing roof-top solar panels. They have found that the maximum acceptable payback period can be as little as three years or so, because people have a short-term bias, focusing on near term costs and ignoring longer term benefits. The Economist Intelligence Unit ran an interesting survey of the maximum acceptable payback period on efficiency projects , among companies in different countries figure below.
They found that in developing countries companies demanded a median payback period of as little as one to two years in China and three years in India. Such values may help explain why solar leasing could be the way to go, in residential solar, as pioneered by companies such as Solar City in the United States. But the question is still hugely relevant for utilities, as falling solar costs threaten their business model.
We need more research to find a convincing answer. You must be logged in to post a comment. Most utilities across North America and Europe are experiencing challenging times thanks to falling wholesale power prices, a tough regulatory environment and decreasing demand for their electricity. Looking backwards is a good place to start before you look forward. It helps to contextualise and understand the current situation, and perhaps get a better forecast this year!
Dario studied software engineering at the Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy. Passionate about science and technology from an early age, he particularly enjoys breaking down complicated subjects into simple terms. Popular Stories. Load More. Sign in to post a comment. Please keep comments to less than words.
No abusive material or spam will be published. The bureaucrats studied "energy cost"? How about actual economic cost? Nothing said! That would imply there's no good news. The energy cost is useful only if a number of other conditions are met, starting with there being a reliable way to forecast future climate - which there is not. They can claim what ever they want, they just cannot make it true. I can't see how this means anything unless these particular Solar cells are to cheap to be worthwhile.
Pretty great that solar is becoming so efficient. In doing so it opening up lots of new areas where it can be used. One thing that will always be even better than efficient energy production is using less energy in the first place. Now that is not easy, but an area often almost ignored is isolation. Even if these panels become viable, they won't be much cheaper than silicone based panels. The industry would find a way to support high prices.
Hopefully it will cause a revolution that will just wash high-priced suppliers out of the way. I hope this is what happens to the auto insurance industry when autonomous cars roll in. They are already thinking of ways around this. If the death toll drops from 40k per year to under 1k per year, there is no need for so much insurance.
And why should liability increase if accidents decrease?
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