Green Daily

A professor at University of California Berkeley says that solar power in its current form is uneconomical and not worth pursuing. Severin Borenstein writes in his paper The Market Value and Cost of Solar Photovoltaic Electricity Product that even when the positive economic impact of greenhouse gas reduction is taken into account, the costs of solar photovoltaic (PV) technology are far greater than the benefits.

Borenstein says that the average cost for installing a solar PV system ranges from $86,000 to $91,000, while the electricity generated over the lifetime of the system is only worth between $19,000 and $51,000. This value could be increased if utilities charged higher rates for electricity during peak periods (solar is most productive on sunny afternoons, typically the time of highest demand.)

Across the board hikes in the price of electricity produced from other sources would also make solar more practical, economically speaking, but that's probably not the solution most consumers are looking for.

The professor's not suggesting that we should rip down our solar panels and stick with coal-fired plants. He does, however, think that government-subsidized solar installations are a waste of money that would be better spent on researching more efficient solar technologies.