Solar power is the philadelphia phillies of energy: perennially full of promise. Photovoltaic cells have been around since 1883 (the same year, coincidentally, that the Phillies were founded). But today the sun contributes only 0.03% of the electricity generated in the U.S., and this juice costs, on average, 27 cents per kilowatt-hour before subsidies. Absent those government handouts, the solar power industry would vaporize.rnNow for the sunny news. Within seven years the cost of unsubsidized solar power could be down to 10 cents per kwh-what the average American consumer pays today for juice produced in power plants fed with coal, natural gas or uranium.
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