Solar update

First Solar's factory in Frankfurt. Note the reels of flexible solar material.

Less than 5 weeks ago, I did a post on Solar's Great Leap Forward. In the meantime, the manufacturing cost of Chinese conventional PV has dropped from $1.28 to $0.85/W (source). This is a 77% reduction in 6 years.

And today I saw that First Solar have reduced the manufacturing cost of their thin-film PV from $1.08 to $0.76/W (source: Big Gav). This is an 83% reduction from the price 6 years ago.

These are really significant price drops! Hopefully Lomborg (and ironically George Bush) will be proved right and renewables will cost less than fossil fuels by 2035.