We're almost there with PV Solar price/performance.

[kandrathe]

I've always been hopeful that the day would come when PV solar cells would be affordable enough to compete evenly with fossil fuels. I still have concerns about limitations (1000w / square meter), but where possible it will become more common if it can compete with the cheapest of fuels.

From reason magazine; Unlimited Free Solar Power?

Let's start with the levelized cost analysis that is the most bullish with respect to solar photovoltaic. In September, the financial advisory firm Lazard reckoned that the levelized unsubsidized cost of utility-scale solar PV is as low as $72 per megawatt-hour. (A megawatt-hour is roughly equivalent to the amount of electricity used by 330 houses during one hour.) Lazard projects that these costs will drop to $60 per megawatt-hour by 2017. Meanwhile, the low-end of natural gas generation is now $61 per megawatt-hour; for coal generation, it's $66 per megawatt-hour; and for nuclear, it’s $124 per megawatt-hour. With the current U.S. tax breaks, the low-end solar PV utility-scale costs is $56 per megawatt-hour. George Bilicic, a vice chairman of Lazard, concluded that utilities "still require conventional technologies to meet the energy needs of a developed economy, but they are using alternative technologies to create diversified portfolios of power generation resources."

Now if only we could develop hyper efficient wind generation as quickly. I live in wind country, and not sun country.