Still waiting

Residential solar power. Energy directly from the sun made and used off grid in your home - pretty cool. The average residential solar panel installation costs about $15,000 - $20,000 after government rebates and subsidies. A lot of money to invest upfront. But financing is available with repayment periods of 15-20 years allowing for monthly payments that are less than the average current electric bills. So why don't we see solar panels on every roof? Simple - technological growth is exponential, the systems are becoming obsolete every 3-5 years, long before they are paid off. Each generation of systems significantly cheaper and much more efficient than the preceding ones, producing more power for less money. So much so that hanging on to solar panels for the 15-20 years it takes to pay them off would be like hanging on to your PC that long.

What is needed is to be able to pay off the systems before they become obsolete while making payments no greater than current electric bills. Since the average household electric bill is about $150/month this translates into systems costing about $5000 - $6000 installed. Pay them off in 3-4 years, keep them 5 years, make a little money over what you would normally have to pay, and then upgrade.

An alternative may be to offer installations larger than needed for free. Companies would make money on a monthly fee that is less than current electric bills and on the sale of the excess electricity to the utility companies, the customer would never own anything.

One thing is for sure - as long as prices stay where they are the grid as we know it is safe and greenhouse gases, king.