| >>> I guess I should point out these kind of insults are against the site guidelines. >It's not an insult. It's a clear reference to the fact that your source does not support your claim, and it actually rejects it. If you are unfamiliar with them, the Hacker News guidelines are here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html In particular, check the section on commenting - for example: >Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that". >>> You are quoting the lowest value in each range, you need to consider the entire range: >I'm actually not. If you read the source you cited, you'll notice that they provide a range of values for their estimates of what would be the levelized cost for energy from multiple sources.
The observed real world cases fall within the whole range. This means that they report real world examples of residential rooftop PV panels costing well below alternatives such as Nuclear.
If your thesis was that residential rooftop PV panels were the most expensive source of energy, your own reference refutes your baseless claim. You have to intentionally ignore all the cheapest real world examples of PV installations to proceed to argue they are the most expensive. There would be no reason to estimate a range if we only consider the lowest possible LCOE. As the Statista.com article states: >>Rooftop solar photovoltaic installations on residential buildings have the highest unsubsidized levelized costs of energy generation in the United States. If not for federal and state subsidies, rooftop solar PV would come with a price tag between 147 and 221 U.S. dollars per megawatt hour. At any rate, the LCOE comparison between residential rooftop solar and nuclear is irrelevant to the main issue. The main issue is that if we want to subsidize a renewable energy source, why should we subsidize rooftop solar when we could subsidize utility grade solar or wind? Look at those costs - literally the highest cost estimates for both utility grade solar and wind are lower than the lowest cost estimate for residential rooftop solar. Money is fungible and not unlimited - a dollar that goes to subsidize residential rooftop solar is a dollar that would go much, much further if it was used to subsidize utility grade solar or wind. These residential rooftop solar subsidies are also unusual in that much of the subsidy is often paid by less well-off households to subsidize their wealthier neighbors. |