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US Solar Market Adds 2 Gigawatts of PV in Q1 2017

Following rapid growth across the industry in 2016, the United States solar market added 2,044 megawatts of new capacity in the first quarter of 2017.

As installations grow, prices continue to fall to new lows, with utility-scale system prices dropping below the $1 per watt barrier for the first time, according to GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) latest U.S. Solar Market Insight report.

The first quarter of 2017 was the sixth straight quarter in which more than 2 gigawatts of solar photovoltaics (PV) and more than 1 gigawatt of utility-scale PV was installed.
More in the link.
https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/us-solar-market-adds-2-gw-of-pv-in-q1-2017
 

smurfx

get some go again
MkqBGfR.gif
 
I'm not really seeing costs coming down for residential installs. :/

Edits:
Says it in the report. The largest market, California, is expecting a year-over-year decline in the coming decade. The costs aren't coming down. A decent install still costs $15-25K.
 

Famassu

Member
I know...wind is the true path.
Combination of different greener energy production methods + creating more energy efficient tech (& improving solar, wind, water etc. energy tech) + putting some effort into trying to get people to spend less energy is the ultimate answer.
 

milanbaros

Member?
It looks like the 21st century could be solar powered.

What sort of infrastructure change is needed to cope with the varying generation of solar power?

In the U.K. There is a very successful damn pump storage which pumps water up when power is cheap. Would this work?
 

VariantX

Member
Glad to see the change is happening alot faster than I imagined. Maybe If we're lucky, fossil fuels will be something that's rarely ever used by the average person by the end of the 21st century.
 
It looks like the 21st century could be solar powered.

What sort of infrastructure change is needed to cope with the varying generation of solar power?

In the U.K. There is a very successful damn pump storage which pumps water up when power is cheap. Would this work?

Either accumulators or gas storage.
 

KDR_11k

Member
It looks like the 21st century could be solar powered.

What sort of infrastructure change is needed to cope with the varying generation of solar power?

In the U.K. There is a very successful damn pump storage which pumps water up when power is cheap. Would this work?

Pumped storage is popular because it's highly efficient and high capacity but geography limits how much of it can be built easily...

In hotter countries like the US you can build salt boiling solar plants, those store so much heat they keep producing power through the night.
 

Izayoi

Banned
Glad to see the change is happening alot faster than I imagined. Maybe If we're lucky, fossil fuels will be something that's rarely ever used by the average person by the end of the 21st century.
Luck has nothing to do with it. It will be reality, whether the fossil giants are willing to admit it or not.
 
Not fast enough.

Faster than anyone else.

That's the advantage of being able to put solar panals on everything in form of small scale installations like on own homes or large scale installations pretty fast and simple, while building a single nuclear power plant easily takes over a decade and needs an incredible amount of subsidies.
 

lunlunqq

Member
Good! We are dropping a lot of trees around our house and seriously considering building a small ground solar farm at the front part of the property. Just need to hide it from street views with some carefully designed landscaping.
 

Rentahamster

Rodent Whores
Does anyone here have solar panels installed?
Yes.
Faster than anyone else.

That's the advantage of being able to put solar panals on everything in form of small scale installations like on own homes or large scale installations pretty fast and simple, while building a single nuclear power plant easily takes over a decade and needs an incredible amount of subsidies.

???

I wasn't comparing it to nuclear.
 

davepoobond

you can't put a price on sparks
Faster than anyone else.

That's the advantage of being able to put solar panals on everything in form of small scale installations like on own homes or large scale installations pretty fast and simple, while building a single nuclear power plant easily takes over a decade and needs an incredible amount of subsidies.


Or, you know, do both at the same time
 
Or, you know, do both at the same time

Rather pointless because renewable energy itself renders traditional base load power plants obsolete. Renewable energy leads to decentralizing the production of energy, there is no point for such inflexible power plants anymore.
 

Suikoguy

I whinny my fervor lowly, for his length is not as great as those of the Hylian war stallions
Pumped storage is popular because it's highly efficient and high capacity but geography limits how much of it can be built easily...

In hotter countries like the US you can build salt boiling solar plants, those store so much heat they keep producing power through the night.

VA has the world's largest water storage battery.
 

gnexus

Member
time to build a wall around the earth and the sun. that damn sun is stealing all the american coal mining jobs
 

gatti-man

Member
Does anyone here have solar panels installed?

I priced it out and for my already green home it would take 10 years to pay off. That's still too long for me. 2200sqft house new AC radiant barrier and extra insulation.

I don't really understand people doing it unless it's to just be environmentally friendly. Where I live we use 100% green energy anyways so that's not an issue (it's in my cities energy contract).

I continue to get pricing updates and it's still 8-10 years best case.
 

goldenpp72

Member
I don't really see how people assume solar will take off for the normal population unless subsidized greatly, no one likes up front cost even if the monthly long term is higher, it's kind of how the majority of US populations operates as is. People living check to check aren't interested in it, but maybe someday.
 

Steel

Banned
What the hell is a Gigawatt?!

Well, the U.S. uses 4000 TW per year. So, not that much. Not to mention this is capacity, not actual generation. It's almost like people just want to take any number they see as a good thing without looking at the bigger picture.
 
Combination of different greener energy production methods + creating more energy efficient tech (& improving solar, wind, water etc. energy tech) + putting some effort into trying to get people to spend less energy is the ultimate answer.

Wind/solar/water are all just stopgaps to the true answer of nuclear fusion. And as a nature lover it's a good thing too because they are all extremely inefficient as far as a land use per amount of energy produced.

wind-farms-airports-holographic-radar.jpg


Disgusting.

43328f0e427c52328af08990737b7f87.jpg


SHAVER-NEWER-DAM.jpg


Shameful.

abandoned-golf-green-solar-released-Kyocera-corp.jpg


Sad.

(But still better than coal)
 
Wind/solar/water are all just stopgaps to the true answer of nuclear fusion. And as a nature lover it's a good thing too because they are all extremely inefficient as far as a land use per amount of energy produced.

wind-farms-airports-holographic-radar.jpg


Disgusting.

We have so much land in America we can afford some wind turbines.
 

Steel

Banned
So, let's just be clear. Solar is expected to grow 12 GW this year, but let's give it the benefit of the doubt and say that over the next ten years we expect it to grow an average of 20 GWs. This is capacity not actual production, but let's say it's production just to give a bone. A single nuclear power plant will take about ten years to make. A single nuclear power plant produces 11 TWHs of energy, not capacity per year. So... in ten years of growth better than this years we'll have replaced... 200 GWs. Not to mention that several nuclear power plants can be built in tandem.

This is not good news. This is using a bucket the size of a thimble to bail a boat filling with water.
 
We have so much land in America we can afford some wind turbines.

Well that would be the opposite of a conservationist's mindset. That's the type of toxic thinking that has squandered our planet's resources for centuries. Hey we have so much atmosphere we can afford some coal plants. Do you realize the havoc the dams in the PNW has played with the Salmon populations compared to natural levels? How much that has disrupted the food chain? And just how much land we are talking about here with wind turbines? So long as at least you don't have to see it right? And it's not in your backyard (but it would be if it were truly widespread).
 

Pomerlaw

Member
Wind/solar/water are all just stopgaps to the true answer of nuclear fusion. And as a nature lover it's a good thing too because they are all extremely inefficient as far as a land use per amount of energy produced.

43328f0e427c52328af08990737b7f87.jpg


SHAVER-NEWER-DAM.jpg


Shameful.

Some Quebec reservoirs are full of fish!

They cut the trees because they create pollution if you leave them there when you flood the area.
 
But clean coal will win eventually. The guys at coal country even said the day after the election everything is right again
Of course
 
Some Quebec reservoirs are full of fish!

They cut the trees because they create pollution if you leave them there when you flood the area.

And? Do you not recognize this as habitat destruction for some reason? To take away natural riparian habitat and replace it with a reservoir isn't close to "making up" for it even if some fish live there also. They aren't the same thing. You are changing the ecosystem. Not to mention the disruption of creatures that depend on the free flow of the river.
 

Katori

Member
Well that would be the opposite of a conservationist's mindset. That's the type of toxic thinking that has squandered our planet's resources for centuries. Hey we have so much atmosphere we can afford some coal plants. Do you realize the havoc the dams in the PNW has played with the Salmon populations compared to natural levels? How much that has disrupted the food chain? And just how much land we are talking about here with wind turbines? So long as at least you don't have to see it right? And it's not in your backyard (but it would be if it were truly widespread).

But we're not talking about dams. We're talking about turbines. And yes, nuclear power is cool, but if more people get onto solar/turbine, more power to them. It's an order of magnitude better than coal/gas.
 
Well that would be the opposite of a conservationist's mindset. That's the type of toxic thinking that has squandered our planet's resources for centuries. Hey we have so much atmosphere we can afford some coal plants. Do you realize the havoc the dams in the PNW has played with the Salmon populations compared to natural levels? How much that has disrupted the food chain? And just how much land we are talking about here with wind turbines? So long as at least you don't have to see it right? And it's not in your backyard (but it would be if it were truly widespread).

I'm just responding to your point about it being an inefficient use of land. Not sure what coal has to do with it. This is why we have environmental impact studies.
 
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