As others have pointed out, several factors have to be taken into consideration. When I said "in a few years", I was thinking a decade, which is what manufacturers for mobile equipment quote (www.sistech.com for example).
If solar power was, as Maury claims, such an unprofitable business for those who own the plants, there wouldn't be a worldwide boom and Maury would be out of business by now. Clearly, subsidies and premium prices for "green" power are a big factor in this, which Maury completely ignores in his linked calculation article. Thinking that Apple hasn't thought this through also from a financial point of view is probably rather naive.
I think there is a solar boom in progress. The problem is that many of these companies based in the us are fairly new companies and were not expecting the recent flood of cheap imports from China.
Usually solar PV is quoted in $/kW rather than kWh as the output varies depending on the annual solar radiation.
You're confusing CAPEX and LCoE. The former is how much you pay for the system, the second is the effective cost of the power it produces. The relationship is straightforward, and you can find an article on it by googling "your own grid parity pv"
If solar power was, as Maury claims, such an unprofitable business for those who own the plants, there wouldn't be a worldwide boom and Maury would be out of business by now. Clearly, subsidies and premium prices for "green" power are a big factor in this, which Maury completely ignores in his linked calculation article..
No it doesn't. It demonstrates that PV requires subsidies where power is cheap or you could build other systems (the example being nuclear). If those two don't hold, PV may be cheaper already. The article gives two examples of this.
In the vast majority of areas, however, PV is completely dependent on support. This represents the *vast* majority of PV installed every year. It's certainly the case here in Toronto, as well as every major FIT market like Germany, Spain and Italy. Surely you are aware of this.
There are other examples where the cost of power is simply not a factor. In the case of UPS demands, PV is cheaper than more batteries. This is clearly being put to good use by Apple.
It is quite logical decision. Solar panels has become an great part of modern cities and industries, and it is great! It was pleasant to learn that there are more solar cities in the world and the fact that such huge companies spent money to preserve nature and use resources wisely is a very good sign.
Comments
As others have pointed out, several factors have to be taken into consideration. When I said "in a few years", I was thinking a decade, which is what manufacturers for mobile equipment quote (www.sistech.com for example).
If solar power was, as Maury claims, such an unprofitable business for those who own the plants, there wouldn't be a worldwide boom and Maury would be out of business by now. Clearly, subsidies and premium prices for "green" power are a big factor in this, which Maury completely ignores in his linked calculation article. Thinking that Apple hasn't thought this through also from a financial point of view is probably rather naive.
I think there is a solar boom in progress. The problem is that many of these companies based in the us are fairly new companies and were not expecting the recent flood of cheap imports from China.
Usually solar PV is quoted in $/kW rather than kWh as the output varies depending on the annual solar radiation.
You're confusing CAPEX and LCoE. The former is how much you pay for the system, the second is the effective cost of the power it produces. The relationship is straightforward, and you can find an article on it by googling "your own grid parity pv"
If solar power was, as Maury claims, such an unprofitable business for those who own the plants, there wouldn't be a worldwide boom and Maury would be out of business by now. Clearly, subsidies and premium prices for "green" power are a big factor in this, which Maury completely ignores in his linked calculation article..
No it doesn't. It demonstrates that PV requires subsidies where power is cheap or you could build other systems (the example being nuclear). If those two don't hold, PV may be cheaper already. The article gives two examples of this.
In the vast majority of areas, however, PV is completely dependent on support. This represents the *vast* majority of PV installed every year. It's certainly the case here in Toronto, as well as every major FIT market like Germany, Spain and Italy. Surely you are aware of this.
There are other examples where the cost of power is simply not a factor. In the case of UPS demands, PV is cheaper than more batteries. This is clearly being put to good use by Apple.
It is quite logical decision. Solar panels has become an great part of modern cities and industries, and it is great! It was pleasant to learn that there are more solar cities in the world and the fact that such huge companies spent money to preserve nature and use resources wisely is a very good sign.