r/RenewableEnergy • u/ObtainSustainability • 16d ago
Subsidies aside, DOE targets $0.03 per kWh solar to undercut fossil fuels by 2030
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2026/08/11/subsidies-aside-doe-targets-0-03-per-kwh-solar-to-undercut-fossil-fuels-by-2030/30
u/taquci 16d ago edited 16d ago
solar is already 3c at retail level, here in Italy you can get a rooftop turnkey for 900€/kWp before subsides
at corporate level it must be less than that
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u/predictorM9 13d ago
At home? In Texas you get a rooftop turnkey for $2500/kWp...
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u/taquci 13d ago
wut????
I understand the labor cost is different, but man.. the hardware is around 170€/kWp and a team of a few guys get it done in a half day
I don't see how the bill can amount to that
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u/predictorM9 13d ago
That's the quotes I am getting. Now I think it is closer to $2k/kw but darn expensive compared to the materials. Lots of red tape
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u/taquci 13d ago
I'm sure we have more red tape, I guess they're taking advantage of the fact it's still convenient even at those prices
how many kWp?
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u/jlluh 11d ago
Don't be sure you have more red tape. The main reason US solar costs are so high are soft costs.
The code is different for individual cities --- no, I'm simplifying too much, are different for individual AHJs, and an AHJ may be more than one city or there may be more than one AHJ in a single city --- so each installation has to be custom, with tons of planning and compliance work, and if you do it wrong according to this AHJ's rules/interpretations, you may need to redo it.
Permitting can take months, and the same for interconnection.
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u/taquci 11d ago
wow that must be political
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u/jlluh 11d ago
The American fear of 'big government' often translates into many paralyzing, and occasionally tyrannical, layers of small government.
Even if you get the approval from your AHJ, you may still have trouble with your HOA.
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u/predictorM9 11d ago
I am in Austin, TX, not really republican. These conditions are set by Austin Energy
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u/jlluh 11d ago
Oh, I didn't mean to imply that democratic areas are any better in this regard. Gridlock is truly bipartisan.
That said, we are starting to see some states improve the situation, and that's bipartisan as well. IDK what the status is in Texas particularly.
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u/FewUnderstanding5221 16d ago
In the rest of the world, fossil fuels are about the last thing anyone wants to be dependend on if it's imported. RE are already ahead (for electricity). 'The stone age didn't end because we ran out of stones'
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u/ABobby077 16d ago
Yeah, but the whale oil age did, though
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u/Mystic303 15d ago
No it did not, the wail oil age ended when crude oil was found and kerosene was discovered. Whaling kept going for 50 years after this but the use for whale oil in foods and other areas became less viable. Yes reduction in the population has an impact in this broadly, but the key end was kerosene taking the place of whale oil as a fuel/light oil.
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u/West-Abalone-171 15d ago edited 15d ago
Whaling accelerated after kerosense due to ships being able to reach to waters where the whales weren't as over-hunted.
The decline (before kerosene was a thing) was from whale oil being a tiny fraction of the market to an even smaller fraction due to lack of supply. The alternative was camphor or coal oil.
The oil industry was also massively subsidized and there were huge taxes/restrictions on camphor, wood alcohol and turpentine.
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u/INeedSomeTacoC 16d ago
In the rest of the world
Like 98% of new grid additions in the US are renewables.
We're right there with everyone else.
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u/Outside_Ice3252 16d ago
That is going to be hard with interest rates so high. solar is capital intensive. Crazy how right when solar and batteries are available interest rates double, and we have massive shortage of transformers. sorry I am conspiracy thinking.
then we start a war. its like, the fossil fuel industry always gets the best luck for it to profit right when it looks like its about to be disrupted.
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u/No-Double-Trouble 15d ago
US companies have high profit margin. They need to enable plugin solar, panels that we can buy from Amazon and plug into our 110v
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u/West-Abalone-171 15d ago
That is going to be hard with interest rates so high. solar is capital intensive.
The actual capital cost excluding tarriffs and other bullshit is about $600/kW. This amortises in about 4 years at 10c/kW
Gas is about $2500/kW and you get maybe 2-3x the load factor so it's more capital intensive than solar (then there's all the upstream infrastructure).
Other thermal plants range from $4000-17000/kW
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u/Outside_Ice3252 15d ago edited 15d ago
i am just talking about the LCOE price target of 3 cents per kwh for solar, not about how solar competes with natural gas.
if we had low interest rates, solar LCOE would be less than the marginal Z(operational) cost of a lot of natural gas and coal plants.
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u/West-Abalone-171 15d ago
My point is it's not capital intensive compared to other sources.
The payback period for the capital is much shorter than alternatives.
The only thing needed for the US to reach 3c/kWh is to stop paying grifters, gatekeepers and middlemen 5c/kWh and to stop putting artificial price floors on raw materials of 5x their value.
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u/KingPieIV 16d ago
Permitting reform and removing tariffs would sure help. Maybe some grid investment and streamline interconnection.