[Boot Hill]

8	“The goal is to have 3,000 megawatts worth of solar power by 2018...The net projected savings over 10 years would be as much as $1 billion, said Campbell.”

Solar power is so economically and energy inefficienct that is now time to consider bringing criminal indictments for fraud against the manufacturers and promoters.

The Inefficiencies of Solar Power
(Based upon a horizontal PV array located at
the average continental U.S. latitude of 38º.)

ref.	source	loss (%)	power (per m2)
1.	Solar flux	-	1,368 W
2.	Atmospheric losses	45	752 W
3.	Night times losses	50	376 W
4.	Solar angle losses	50	188 W
5.	Cell conversion losses	88	22.6 W
6.	DC®AC inverter losses	10	20.3 W
7.	Net efficiency		1.5%
8.	Net energy             (per m2 per day)		0.5 kWh
9.	Value of energy     (per m2 per day)		4.3 ¢
10.	Solar panel cost               (per m2)		$530
11.	Payback period		33 years

Notes:

1.	Above the atmosphere. Compare to solar constant.
2.	Loss = atmos. absorp. + atmos. reflect. + cloud absorp. + cloud reflect. See additional references: 1,   2,   3,
3.	Necessary for calculating average daily value of energy production.
4.	Effect of solar angle on efficiency. Line 4 equals 4.5kWh per day. Compare to U.S. Average Daily Solar Radiation.
5.	Shell SQ175-PC, including specified de-rating for cell temperature and irradiance level.
6.	5kW modular, certified, grid-interactive, inverter.
7.	Line 6 divided by line 1.
8.	Line 6 times 86,400 and divided by 3.6E6.
9.	From 2004 DOE stats for average U.S. residential price.
10.	Shell SQ175-PC solar panel, $699, 1.32m2 area.
11.	Exclusive of installation, inverter, interest, etc.

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--Boot Hill

[Carry_Okie]

Your excellent analysis charitably presumes neither the cost of batteries, inverters, etc. nor the fact that the solar cells themselves have an expected life equal roughly to their payback period; i.e., once they have "paid for themselves" you have to junk them and buy replacement cells. It also neglects the cost of disposal and/or recycling as well.

[Carry_Okie]

I might also add that in favor of solar one should factor in the effect of line losses of conventionally generated power, IIRC, typically around 12%.