The wackos in Sacramento are at it again. They want to require home builders to put solar panels on a certain percentage of every new home built.

Dan DeLong, who emailed the link to me, comments:

I think every year 10% of the members of [fill in name of environmental group] should be forced by law to install the same system.

$10K a house!? I'm surprised they can't yet print out thin film solar panels like wallpaper. I remember seeing a process for making large thin-film solar panels at TRW, before it became Northrop Grumman. I wonder what the long tent pole in the cost is?

Amorphous thin film PV panels tend to have very low efficiency. The newer triple layer panels are still low efficiency but in the useful range. I do think thin film PV has the most mass production potential.

I don't like this proposal, but back when Davis decided California should subsidize power with bonds (which didn't last long), I was hoping he would introduce a grant system for installation of PV panels and energy efficiency improvements instead. At least the money would have gone to something useful and I do think PV prices will drop dramatically as the market size increases.

PV, while still quite expensive, has come down quite a bit. Also, the hardware has become far more practical in the last 10 years.

"I do think PV prices will drop dramatically as the market size increases."

It looks like the opposite is happening. The market is so large compared to manufacturing capacity that prices are not dropping. A good place to follow the market is: http://www.solarbuzz.com/

Global PV cell production passed 500 MW last year and production is increasing 35% per year. The good news is that the rate of increase is increasing.

BTW, my comment about "forcing environmentalists" was tongue-in-cheek. I was referring to Heinlein's observations about do-gooders wanting to force other people to change their ways, without volunteering to do the same themselves.

Dan DeLong

From http://www.solarbuzz.com/Moduleprices.htm it looks like short term prices are rising, but long term prices have been dropping as I expected. That isn't surprising. I was thinking long term, as in the next 20 years.

For the record, I also wish California would promote nuclear power, but I don't see that happening any time soon.