The Holy Grail of the solar industry — reaching grid parity — may no longer be a distant dream. Solar may have already reached that point, at least when compared to nuclear power, according to a new study by two researchers at Duke University.

It’s no secret that the cost of producing photovoltaic cells (PV) has been dropping for years. A PV system today costs just 50 percent of what it did in 1998. Breakthroughs in technology and manufacturing combined with an increase in demand and production have caused the price of solar power to decline steadily. At the same time, estimated costs for building new nuclear power plants have ballooned.

The result of these trends: “In the past year, the lines have crossed in North Carolina,” say study authors John Blackburn and Sam Cunningham. “Electricity from new solar installations is now cheaper than electricity from proposed new nuclear plants.”

Source: The Energy Collective

The International Energy Agency (IEA) presented two new solar energy analyses in Valencia, Spain this week, a Solar Photovoltaic Energy Technology Roadmap and a Concentrating Solar Power Technology Roadmap.

The key finding from these is that 20-25% of global electricity production could be from solar energy by 2050.

In a blog post on our sister site, One Block Off the Grid, I just discussed how the United States and how rooftop solar fit into this. Below, mostly from the reports themselves, is a short discussion of what government’s role in all of this needs to be.

Source: Simply Green

When one looks at the initial cost of solar powering a home, many of us cringe at having to fork out to install the solar items that get us off grid either partially or completely.

A solar power system is an expensive home addition but it’s an extremely beneficial one, particularly given ESKOM’s price hike. If you don’t have thousands of rands to pay for these solar power systems up front, there are other ways in which you can pay for your home to be eco friendly…

One of the most obvious ways would be to apply for a loan for your residential solar power system. The problem with a loan is that the payments can be exorbitant and you could pay off a solar power system for years to come. A more economical alternative is to increase the bond on your home to include your solar system.

Getting finance for your solar power system might not be as difficult as you think. The most cost effective and economical way of financing solar power products like solar panels and geysers is to include it as part of your home bond. Bonds are long term loans and these loans can easily include your solar power products without increasing the monthly payment too much.

If you have a long term loan, one that will be paid off for the next 20 years or so, including your solar power system within your bond makes a lot of sense. In many cases, the monthly savings you will make from your solar power products will likely exceed the monthly bond payments for the system itself.

There are many benefits to using a solar power system in your home, and the payback is rewarding. solar panels and solar water heaters are only some of the solar power products available to install in your home. As electricity prices increase, so will your solar savings increase pro-rata.

Another great benefit that many of us overlook when installing a solar power system is that the solar system will increase the value of our home, especially in South Africa at a time when everyone is trying to find ways to avoid escalating electricity tariffs.

So, if you’re currently in the market for a new home, solar products such as a solar heater are that much more available to you through your bond. Certainly finances shouldn’t limit you from using a solar power system within your home.

Source: Urban Sprout

For a while, things were looking gloomy. The founders of Washington, D.C.‘s Mount Pleasant Solar Cooperative had their hearts in the right place; they even had their paperwork in the right place. But they hit snag after snag as they tried to fulfill the dream of converting their neighborhood to solar power: Contractors who didn’t want to sell solar panels in bulk. Confusion over the role of the regional utility. And the inevitable red tape of local politics.

Eventually the group’s persistence paid off, and this month they’re celebrating their fiftieth neighborhood solar installation. We caught up with co-founder and president Anya Schoolman to find out how it all happened, what’s next, and what advice she’d give to other communities who want to follow the sun.

Q. Can you explain what the Mount Pleasant Solar Cooperative is, and how and when it formed?

A. The Mt. Pleasant Solar cooperative emerged from dinner table conversation I had with my son Walter, then 12, and his friend Diego. They had seen “An Inconvenient Truth” and they wanted to know, if the Earth was going to overheat in their lifetime, “Is, um, anybody, you know … going to do anything about it?” The next question was, “Why don’t we get solar power in our neighborhood.” So we decided we would try to do something.

Our neighborhood consists mostly of rowhouses with flat roofs. We thought if we got enough neighbors together who wanted to adopt solar arrays, some solar contractor would offer us big discounts. We got the neighbors together and quickly learned it was going to be a lot more complicated than we originally thought. So we set out to to educate ourselves about all aspects of solar and to share that knowledge with as many people as possible. That’s where the “cooperative” concept really proved valuable. Read more at http://www.grist.org

Source: The New Green Economy

A total of 112 green-power projects are under way in Africa.

Of these, 28 are taking place in South Africa, or are in the process of either being registered or applying for registration under the Kyoto Protocol’s so-called CDM (clean development mechanism), declared a statement from the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep) on Wednesday.

Two of these projects awaiting registration in South Africa are solar-heated water systems.

CDM projects range from the development of renewable energy sources to the planting of trees.

More than 80% of all CDM projects in Africa are located in sub-Saharan Africa.

The projects include the replacement of conventional electric light bulbs with energy-efficient bulbs in Senegal, and developing a municipal dumping ground in Uganda where power can be generated.

According to Unep there were 78 CDM projects in Africa in 2008, but in 2004 only two.

In Asia there are 3 700 live projects and in Latin America just over 820.

Across the world 4 730 CDM projects are either in progress or waiting for approval.
Source: Fin24