Our local utility offers time of day pricing. The afternoon being the highest at this time of year, something like $0.28/kwh. The offer lower rates at night. Thus solar only works when the rate is highest which is perfect timing.

While many people are waiting for solar to go below grid parity, they don’t understand that they can get time of day service and would already be below parity.

Grid parity depends on the two costs you ask about: the solar panels (made up of modules/cells) and installation. Conventional power plants cost ~$1.75-$3.50 per watt (natural gas lower, coal higher) and then to generate electricity takes buying fuel (a marginal cost that is pretty low for coal and has been higher for natural gas, but is low right now due to the recession). So, wind and solar need to get their costs below $1.75 per watt to achieve grid parity – due to their intermittency which offsets the nonexistent marginal cost thanks to free wind and sunshine. Most wind farms cost ~$2 per watt today, though the price is poised to fall significantly in 2010. And solar currently costs ~$5-$9 per watt (lower for large installations). As First Solar can now produce their panels at less than $1 per watt, they can reach profit by selling them for just $1 per watt – so it’s up to installers to lower their costs in the months ahead to get the total cost of installed solar moving on a trajectory like below $4.50 in 2010, $3.50 in 2011, and $2.50 in 2012.

I go into more detail on grid parity in a May post here.

Keep checking with SETenergy.org for updates on grid parity progress-

Dennis

I have always wondered , How do these cell or module manufacturers calculate their cost of solar power/per watt ?..

Is the grid parity cost, shared with the end consumer who install a PV Panel on their roof ?

Thanks
Usha

I don’t know what the answer is to make solar more affordable, but I think it has something to do with enormous government run factories churning out incredible amounts of them.