Solar probably won’t really take off until it makes more
economic sense to slap some photovoltaics on your roof than to
continue paying your utility company for their dirty, probably
mostly coal-fired power. That day has arrived in parts of sunny
California and Hawaii, and it’s coming to (not-so-sunny) Germany
by 2013, reports Michael Coren at Fast Company. Global PV solar
installation grew from 0.26 GW to 16.1 GW between 2000 to 2010,
while manufacturing costs fell 100 times. Of course, “grid
parity,” as it’s called, doesn’t mean you can just painlessly
switch from the old power source to a new one. There’s still the
up-front cost of installing solar panels, which is a lot to
spend, even on something that is going to save you money in the
long run. If you’re paying for them on your own, you’re
essentially pre-paying your electricity bills for the next 20 to
30 years, which is something that only a tiny fraction of us can
afford to do. (If you can afford it, it’s probably as good or
better an investment than