Solar energy is the least expensive source of electricity in history and has been for the last six years according to the International Energy Agency.
New technologies like black silicon are pushing solar costs even lower. Thus, with no subsidies solar is simply less expensive than all of the other antiquated options. Solar costs are so low they can be used to subsidize electrification of homes with heat pumps at a profit. At this point pretty much, everyone should be taking a second look at solar powering their homes or business just for money savings. It is not entirely surprising that solar is the fastest growing energy source even in the world, but it is a bit surprising that even with no policy support solar continues to dominate in the U.S. In addition, to the pure money savings possible with solar there are co-benefits that are often ignored that might explain why solar is taking off so fast.
New Types of Solar Power Systems Save Money
With the massive growth of solar power, it is expected that solar photovoltaic (PV) systems will play a pivotal role in the global transition to renewable energy, providing decentralized energy generation and some serious socio-economic advantages. Solar energy, however, is pretty diffuse. This means that you need a lot of solar panels to provide all the electricity for society’s growing needs. The land-use intensity of conventional PV, however, has led to growing interest in non-conventional systems such as:
- Floating PV (FPV) – solar panels that float on water and reduce water evaporation.
- Building-integrated PV (BIPV) – solar panels that make up the walls or roof of a building to save on building material costs.
- Agrivoltaics – co-locating solar with farming and amazingly increase crop yield with the partial shading and can provide power in abundance even for EV charging.
- PV carports – those living in sunny places enjoy getting into a car that isn’t an oven from the solar shade.
- Grid-support applications – It turns out the inverters that are needed for solar can also make the electrical engineers at your local utility jobs a little easier.
Read more: Forbes
