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htrp 10 hours ago

>Solar Home System Evolution:

>2008: $5,000 (affordable only for wealthy urban Kenyans)

>2015: $800 (middle-class farmers)

>2025: $120-$1,200 (true smallholders)

How does US solar cost so much?

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testing22321 10 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Tariffs (government tax) on Chinese panels, corruption (companies bribing(lobbying) to get monopolies on installs) and more corruption ( power companies bribing to get guaranteed profits)

Based on comments here my 7.8kw rooftop solar in Canada was 3-5x cheaper than people pay in the US. It was $8k CAD ($5,660 usd) My Dad in Australia got a 10kw system fully installed for $5k AUD ($3,250 usd)

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bave8672 9 hours ago | parent [-]

To be fair, prices in Aus have been heavily subsidised until recently.

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testing22321 6 hours ago | parent [-]

Of course, which is a great thing!

When you buy corn or gas or tires for your car do you really care if it’s subsidized and say something like “oh yeah it was $x, but heavily subsidized”?

Of course not, you only care about how much it costs you.

	▲	bave8672 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		On the contrary, I care because I don't buy these things at all, yet my taxes are being used to subsidise the people that do.

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aitchnyu 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Solar panels represent approximately 12% of the total average cost for solar projects in the United States. The remaining costs are primarily composed of soft costs, which include permitting, financing, installation labor, customer acquisition, and other non-hardware expenses.

https://www.ny-engineers.com/blog/breaking-down-the-price-of...

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throwaway290 8 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

probably CCP subsidizing manufacturing and sales (like they do with EV) because it's a command economy and getting the world to run on their stuff is good for their "national security". and US taxing it for that reason