competitive solar energy

Google pledged to develop renewable energy sources cheaper than coal. Now Nanosolar, whose backers include Google’s co-founders, say it is ready to produce the world’s lowest-cost solar panel, costing as little as 99 cents (US) per watt.

A year ago, Google announced it would derive 30% of the energy needs for its corporate head office from solar panels - which sounds great, but the huge investment in 1.6 megawatts of solar capacity also meant that California taxpayers would be forking out $4.5 million in subsidies to Google as part of the state's incentive programme. At the going subsidy of $2.80 per installed watt, the subsidy could have been saved by Google waiting a year for Nanosolar's relatively inexpensive panels. Solar prices will continue to fall as technology evolves and demand increases, so how long should I wait?