Everyone loves rooftop solar panels. But there’s a problem. • One of the most popular methods to cut your household’s carbon footprint may be a mixed bag.
Everyone loves rooftop solar panels. But there’s a problem. • One of the most popular methods to cut your household’s carbon footprint may be a mixed bag.
>Researchers argue that home solar panels are raising the price of electricity and reducing the need for cheaper large solar farms — making the entire transition to clean energy more expensive. And as more and more homeowners turn to solar, thanks in part to more generous government incentives, that could actually make it harder for the United States to meet its overall climate goals.
>Solar on peoples’ homes is competing, at some level, with large solar farms run by utilities. The more rooftop solar you have, the less valuable utility-scale solar is. But rooftop solar costs much more than a giant solar farm. Installing solar panels on the roof of a house or apartment building will cost a homeowner around [$4.20](https://archive.is/o/wwID4/https://emp.lbl.gov/news/updated-report-and-data-illustrate-distributed-solar-pricing-and-design-trends) per watt before tax breaks and incentives — while installing them in a large solar farm costs closer to $1.16 per watt.
>Pooling together private and federal money, it’s just going to be a lower cost way to get kilowatt-hours of solar, if it’s utility-scale.
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>Researchers argue that home solar panels are raising the price of electricity and reducing the need for cheaper large solar farms — making the entire transition to clean energy more expensive. And as more and more homeowners turn to solar, thanks in part to more generous government incentives, that could actually make it harder for the United States to meet its overall climate goals.
>Solar on peoples’ homes is competing, at some level, with large solar farms run by utilities. The more rooftop solar you have, the less valuable utility-scale solar is. But rooftop solar costs much more than a giant solar farm. Installing solar panels on the roof of a house or apartment building will cost a homeowner around [$4.20](https://archive.is/o/wwID4/https://emp.lbl.gov/news/updated-report-and-data-illustrate-distributed-solar-pricing-and-design-trends) per watt before tax breaks and incentives — while installing them in a large solar farm costs closer to $1.16 per watt.
>Pooling together private and federal money, it’s just going to be a lower cost way to get kilowatt-hours of solar, if it’s utility-scale.
[Copy of the rest of the article, in case of paywall](https://archive.is/wwID4)