Solar Panel at 12 cents per watt

[Meredith Poor + 895]

Vendor in China selling panels at 12 cents per watt, however minimum order quantity at that price is 10 megawatts. Given that utility scale farms run from 100 Mw to 1Gw, this is a perfectly reasonable order quantity.

10Mw would price out to $1.2 million (plus shipping, etc.) Common wholesale rates are $20 per Mwh, or 2 cents per Kwh. Each watt of capacity has to produce power for 6000 hours to break even. 6(Kwh) x .02 = 12 cents. Since cloud free exposure nets out at 1800 hours (360 days * 5 hours), the panels would pay for themselves in 3.3 years, presuming no cost for installation or for the other power transmission infrastructure that would be needed.