9 Signs That Americans Will See Solar Power Everywhere Within The Decade

Rob Wile

May 7, 2013, 11:22 PM

Mars Corp.’s New Jersey solar array

Last week, Massachusetts announced it had reached its goal of obtaining 250 megawatts of power — enough to power multiple mid-sized cities — four years early.

It’s another sign that, as we’ve recently discussed, solar is booming.

The main reason is China, which has so thoroughly flooded the global market with cheap parts that today, Europe slapped them with a new tariff.

But there are other signs that solar power is set to take off.

We’ve compiled some of them here.

In the past few years, the doubling of solar capacity has resulted in a 40% reduction in solar costs.

Mostly thanks to China.

Solar has high start-up costs, but give it enough time and it becomes the cheapest power source out there.

That's even without subsidies.

Source: GWU

Warren Buffett recently purchased the largest solar development in the world, a set of arrays in California.

This is a man not known for making bad bets.

Source: Business Insider

Households in many countries can already get solar cheaper than the price of plugging into their local grid.

Residents of the Southwest U.S. reached this point last year.

During peak demand times in some countries, solar is most cost-effective. Here's what the demand cost curve looks like in Germany on a winter's day.

'This peak effect has resulted in some gas plants in Germany running in 2012 for no more than a handful of days, with resulting profit warnings from associated utilities,' Citi writes.

Citi projects $1.3 trillion will be invested in solar by 2035.

That's third only to wind and hydro.

Arizona, Hawaii, and Nevada are the top 3 states for most solar per capita. But fourth? NEW JERSEY!

This is a state one usually does not associate with excessive (natural) sun...

Source: SEIA.org

And the amount of new solar New Jersey's largest utility, PSE&G, installed last year was third-most in the country.

The Garden State's commitment to solar was kicked off during Gov. Jon Corzine's administration, according to the New York Times. By state mandate, power providers must get 23 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2021.

Source: Solar Electric Power