Brad,

You said: “You’ll be able to buy it (electricity) from them (the power company) at a modest margin.” In reality, my local power company wants increases that may be as much as 55% for some customers. http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200612291409DOWJONES...
For an already profitable company, that doesn’t seem like a modest margin to me.

You said: “… solar gets cheaper or carbon fuels get more expensive – either way we switch to solar or something better.” Good luck trying to purchase solar panels when the utility companies and average consumers are all wanting to buy them at the same time.

You said: “If like a computer, they (solar panels) cost half (of what they cost now) you’re in trouble.” I don’t understand your logic. If I have panels on my roof that are generating electricity for me, why does it matter how much I paid for them? How am I in trouble?

You said: “ PV panels can’t improve as well as computers do.” Why does it matter? As long as my roof is large enough to hold all of the panels I need, and they continue to generate power for 20+ years, I don’t care about improvements. If my neighbor can buy panels at a later date for half of what I paid for mine, I’m happy for him.

While you do agree that solar is good for the planet, you’re glossing over the harmful effects of using coal-generated electricity.

You said: “Grid will be cheaper” but you didn’t respond to my statements about the true cost of coal-generated electricity. A lot of tax dollars are going to projects like cleaning up abandon mine sites, repairing damaged waterways and ground water sources, and healthcare for those affected by mining and burning coal. You’ve ignored the true cost of coal-generated electricity in your initial post, and that’s just wrong.

http://solarjohn.blogspot.com