For years, decades really, the pv industry has always been 2-4 years away from the next big "breakthrough" that would drop panel cost to "a dollar a watt". For a long time, actual street price was around four dollars a watt. The magic "dollar a watt" level was often touted as making PV competitive with grid electrons if coal or nuclear was the prime mover, taking into account life cycle costs and so on.
Well hey, we're there. Aren't we? NanoSolar and a few others claim to be able to make kilowatts with their panels and compete with the big status quo industries, no subsidies, etc. One hears figures of 5 or 6 cents per kwh. I presume that is over the life cycle, and probably panel cost only, not balance of system cost.
And, there have been a few folks here who have purchased these very inexpensive panels.
So...
1. Do we have any short term reports of how they work?
2. Do we have any reputable reports of how long we may expect these panels to last, other than, "We say they will."
3. If this is all true, this may significantly reduce the world's dependence on fossil fuels and we might actually squeak by the whole peak oil problem. Should there be jumping up and down in the streets by the populace because we are saved?
4. Note that, if we correct for inflation, panels that currently sell for a dollar a watt are actually much cheaper than a "dollar a watt" as mentioned by the industry people ten or twenty years ago.
Thank you in advance for your various opinions. I have no relation to any of those companies, blah blah blah.
troy