{"id":6785,"date":"2015-03-24T05:54:44","date_gmt":"2015-03-24T10:54:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=6785"},"modified":"2015-03-24T05:54:44","modified_gmt":"2015-03-24T10:54:44","slug":"2014-biggest-year-ever-for-solar-but-oil-price-threat-looms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=6785","title":{"rendered":"2014 biggest year ever for solar, but oil price threat looms"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/transitionvoice.com\/2015\/03\/2014-biggest-year-ever-for-solar-but-oil-price-threat-looms\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">2014 biggest year ever for solar, but oil price threat looms\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n<p>In 2014, record low prices for solar panels fueled a solar boom. The U.S. alone installed 30% more solar photovoltaic capacity than in\u00a02013, making last year the biggest ever for solar PV, according to the 2014 Year-in-Review Solar Market Insight\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/web.greentechmedia.com\/ct.aspx?cid=95679&amp;l=cac3a609-09d7-40b1-859e-5473c8d08756&amp;caidrid=52839707-55599773-51c54af7-0d21-428f-83bd-1cd33645157e\">report<\/a>\u00a0from GTM Research and the Solar Energy Industries Association.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/transitionvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/solar-1-chart.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-25950\" src=\"http:\/\/transitionvoice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/solar-1-chart-600x351.jpg\" alt=\"solar increase\" width=\"600\" height=\"351\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Industry analyst\u00a0<a title=\"Tam Hunt on solar's bright future\" href=\"http:\/\/www.greentechmedia.com\/articles\/read\/The-Solar-Singularity-is-Nigh\">Tam Hunt<\/a>\u00a0argues that in a few years, economics of energy alone will lead the world to achieve the \u201csolar singularity\u201d:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The \u201csolar singularity\u201d will, by my definition, occur when solar prices become so cheap that solar becomes the default power source based on cost alone. We aren\u2019t there yet, but we\u2019re probably just a few years away from that point, particularly since energy storage costs are already declining strongly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The main reason why solar will become cheaper than other options for power? It\u2019s the falling cost of solar panels, according to Hunt, following an established rate of decline. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Swanson%27s_law\">Swanson\u2019s law<\/a>, named after the founder of SunPower, states that the price of solar panels generally\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/pip.709\/epdf\">drops<\/a>\u00a0by 20 percent with every doubling of shipped panels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Interestingly, Hunt notes that Swanson\u2019s Law may not be 100% reliable if past performance is any guide. \u201cFrom the mid-1990s until 2008, solar costs declined by relatively little, primarily due to stubbornly high silicon prices against a backdrop of increasing commodity prices across many markets, until the crash of 2008.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"Apple-style-span\">&#8211; See more at: http:\/\/transitionvoice.com\/2015\/03\/2014-biggest-year-ever-for-solar-but-oil-price-threat-looms\/#sthash.F457M3uv.dpuf<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>2014 biggest year ever for solar, but oil price threat looms\u00a0 In 2014, record low prices for solar panels fueled a solar boom. The U.S. alone installed 30% more solar photovoltaic capacity than in\u00a02013, making last year the biggest ever for solar PV, according to the 2014 Year-in-Review Solar Market Insight\u00a0report\u00a0from GTM Research and the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4381,269,4382,1859,4383],"class_list":["post-6785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-economics-of-energy","tag-energy-storage","tag-solar","tag-solar-power","tag-swansons-law"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6786,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6785\/revisions\/6786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}