Been hearing from some investor friends of mine that solar is getting ready to heat up again. Have you heard that as well?
What's the current installation price? I heard ten bucks per watt.
With the Obama admin coming in, it should heat up. Hopefully he continues to ignore the competitive cost factors of today and focuses on the long term viability of the industry (among other alt energy options)
The solars are up pretty well today, but they have a ways to go to break out relative strength over cash. But given the long tail down on the charts, they could almost double before seeing a techinical breakout. If you want a decent sector look, track TAN.
If I were to play the solars right now, I would stick with TAN as there could be a shakeout of some of the smaller companies and you don't want to get stuck holding the wrong solar play. I like the sector and think it has long term viability and great growth potential (especially under Obama)... but would recommend caution here.
Not what I heard. Perhaps your cost doesn't include shipping, installation, wiring, controls, etc. Oh, and "they" have been saying that the price will go down in 6 years for the past 40 or so.cost is around $2-4 a watt depending on the quality/company and they expect for it to drop below $1 by 2014
o.k. thanks. im stuck in eslr im not gonna move out of it till I break even.
Not what I heard. Perhaps your cost doesn't include shipping, installation, wiring, controls, etc. Oh, and "they" have been saying that the price will go down in 6 years for the past 40 or so.
Um, the price has come down quite a bit in the past 6 years and will likely continue trending down.
Granted it is still subsidized by the government, but with that subsidy, the breakeven point for most commercial properties is about a year.... and that does not include the savings in terms of the environment, reduction in fossil fuel use (ie... reducing demand on oil/nat gas etc)
First Solar beat the prices the produce conventionally already without subsidies. Read the article I posted...
http://www.greentechmedia.com/artic...es-grid-parity-milestone-says-eport-5387.html
Solar's reached a grid parity! It costs $0.075 per kilowatt hour for solar as opposed to $0.09 per kilowatt hour for convential. This is a huge milestone for Solar, which is a big reason to invest.
I liked Evergreen, but Lehman screwed them over pretty good. That is the danger.
Say you started with $10k and are now down to $3k. If you believe in the sectors potential... why stick with one stock? If in a non-IRA account, tax harvest. Book your loss and shift into another that also has the upside.
Just my opinion.
Disclaimer.... due to how hard ESLR has been hammered, they do have tremendous upside potential... I just am still nervous about owning one stock in that sector. Once burned...
Well its not 10k its 50k for me. I want to make some money back before I drop it.
Same principal applies. If Solars are expected to go up... do you tie yourself to one company or the sector as a whole. The single company gives you better odds of hitting the hero or zero type performance. Higher risk/return.
Obviously we all have our own levels of risk tolerance. For that sector right now, I play the TAN. I had ESLR, LDK and JASO in my portfolio. Sold them all and bought TAN to book the losses, yet not miss out on the upside rebound. Just sharing the way I played it. To each their own.
http://www.greentechmedia.com/artic...es-grid-parity-milestone-says-eport-5387.html
Solar's reached a grid parity! It costs $0.075 per kilowatt hour for solar as opposed to $0.09 per kilowatt hour for convential. This is a huge milestone for Solar, which is a big reason to invest.
It doesn't appear that this includes the cost of distribution and management, would would increase costs by a factor of at least 3, or 50 cents per kwh. Also, I'm not sure if this includes the night cycle, which of course would raise the average kwh cost by another factor of 3 or more. So the actual billed costs to the consumer may be a buck-fifty.After figuring out how much electricity the system is generating, Bachman determined that it costs $0.164 per kilowatt hour.
This story is incredibly misleading. It doesn't appear that this includes the cost of distribution and management, would would increase costs by a factor of at least 3, or 50 cents per kwh. Also, I'm not sure if this includes the night cycle, which of course would raise the average kwh cost by another factor of 3 or more. So the actual billed costs to the consumer may be a buck-fifty.
My power bill is around 8 cents, and the power is generated by nuclear and coal.