If the price of solar continues to drop rapidly, why would anyone buy solar? Waiting a couple years for another 50% price drop seems like an obvious choice while we're still in the $5k-10k range to outfit a home.
Some of the costs are not going to come down much more. Installation labour, roof panel frames, inverter etc. etc. can come down a little but not by much.
People are buying solar today because it's already cheaper than buying grid electricity in a few places. Why wait for another price drop while paying the electric company even more?
People need power now and are not willing wait 5 years. So, someone is going to buy additional power generation now. In which case it's a question of current solar prices vs. (coal, nuclear, etc.) not future solar prices vs current solar pirces.
This is only an issue if you don't NEED the energy NOW. People need it now and they have to get it from somewhere. It doesn't matter what it will cost if you have to have it now. All that matters is what your options are today.
Isn't it only dropping because people are buying it? If no one was buying it, it'd get more expensive. Also, a 50% drop this year doesn't guarantee a 50% drop next year. And perhaps there's some speculation that traditional energy sources are going to increase in price going forwards.
Also, I think for a lot of buyers there's more to the purchase than cost. A lot of organisations have environmental targets to hit nowadays, solar is one way to realise these targets.
And as another commenter mentioned, some people buying might not have a choice (not having electricity isn't an option).
Do you mean the generated power, or the generation hardware? If it's the cheapest energy source available in a market where you have the freedom to choose your supplier, it's a no-brainer.
sure, this is what they teach you in econ 101 about deflation, but in reality, people buy things with utility even if they're getting cheaper (computers, cars, electronics, etc.)
