Nine Reasons Why Solar Power Costs a Lot Less Than People Commonly Believe

By Chris de Morsella on August 3, 2011 2 Comments capacity credit, chris de morsella, Clean Power Research, distributed solar power, environmental, fossil fuel, George Washington University, grid parity, grid parity gap, GW Solar Institute, Ken Zweibel, load following, Locational‐based Marginal Pricing, olar Power Generation in the US: Too expensive, or a bargain, photovoltaic, renewable energy, Richard Perez, rooftop solar, solar energy, solar power, solar;, sustainability, Thomas Hoff, transmission capacity, University of Albany

In discussions on the merits of distributed solar power too little focus has been given to the many important benefits that result from increasing the use of distributed solar power. These benefits accrue to both the utilities and presumably their rate payers as well and to society (and the tax payers) at large. This post summarizes a recent paper “Solar Power Generation in the US: Too expensive, or a bargain?” that attempts to give these benefits a tangible quantified value in order that the debate on the merits of solar power also begin to include this side of the cost / benefit analysis. A side that is all too often glossed over and largely overlooked.