Are Solar Panels Cheaper Than They Were 10 Years Ago

They were too expensive the argument went to build without government handouts.

Are solar panels cheaper than they were 10 years ago.

Install your solar panels now especially because tax credits do expire. For years wind and solar power were derided as boondoggles. Solar panel technology has been around in some form for a long time bell labs invented the first useful solar cell more than 60 years ago and scientists have known for centuries that the sun. Solar power has gotten dramatically cheaper in the past 10 years and is absolutely expected to continue to get cheaper.

Changes in solar panel cost over time can be explained by swanson s law which states that the price of solar pv modules decreases by about 20 percent for every doubling in global solar capacity. In that sense he says solar panels haven t changed much in ten years and today they look more or less the same they still have 72 crystalline based cells glued to glass bolted to a frame. Just a few years ago panels were five times as expensive as they are today. When it was first introduced solar power was so expensive that it was a punchline in the energy business.

While buying a solar installation might ve been only for the well to do just a decade ago with today s low prices and great financing options anyone can install solar and save some money on their energy bills. When it comes to making the choice on which panels to buy it is important to remember that most affordable does not necessarily mean cheapest. The reason for the falling price is written in little letters on the back of the panels going up on john s roof. Today the cost of solar panels is roughly 100 times cheaper than it was in the mid 1970s certified solar installation companies are plentiful and utility companies all over the country work with homeowners to make solar installation easy.

Today renewable energy is so cheap that the handouts. Since then prices have fallen and today solar power is cheaper than coal. In fact it s expected to steadily drop in price through the year 2050. Today s solar panels cost 10 percent less than they did last year a trend that has borne out since the 1980s according to oxford university researchers.