Stephen Lacy

Solar’s getting cheaper, fast

Reporter with Climate Progress covering clean energy issues, Jun 10, 11.

Tagged with energy, technology, renewable energy

There’s a joke in the solar industry about when “grid parity”—the time when solar becomes as cheap as fossil sources—will happen. Ron Kenedi, the former VP in Sharp Solar’s U.S. business liked to throw out random dates, telling me once “November 21, 2012” in jest.

The truth is, it will happen in phases—one market and one technology at a time.

But according to two top solar executives—Tom Dinwoodie, chief technology officer and founder of SunPower and Dan Shugar, former president of SunPower and current CEO of Solaria—“ferocious cost reductions” are accelerating that crossover in a variety of markets today.

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