> we'll all be around to see solar panels that cost 1/10th of what they do now

I get the impression they're already really damn cheap, to the point that the issues are more so with grid interconnections, land use, and storage

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Maxion 34 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Installation labour cost and inverter cost are now the largest expenses.

I wonder if as panel costs goes down, will people start to wire their homes again for 48V DC? You could conceivably run your HVAC and fridges at least off of it, this would negate the need for a larger (more costly) inverter.

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greggsy 18 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Unless you build from scratch, and white box stores suddenly start selling a 48v version of every standard household appliance (with industrial supply chain to support that market), inverters are not going anywhere.

The only place it makes sense is personal tech and computing, where USB chargers are cheap and ubiquitous, with technology replacement in 2-5 years instead of 5-10 for standard appliances.

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cowlevel 19 minutes ago | parent | prev [-]

Why not 120V DC?

	▲	Maxion 15 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Mainly thinking 48V as that is already a standard in the marine and automotive world. AFAIK 120V DC is not a commonly used standard ? (Maybe in aviation?)

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inamberclad 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Hopefully we can move to a micro solar system where everyone is responsible for a fraction of the generation and storage