Should solar photovoltaics be deployed sooner because of long operating life at low, predictable cost?

Governments subsidize the deployment of solar photovoltaics (PV) because PV is deployed for societal purposes. About seven thousand megawatts were deployed in 2009 and over 10,000 are expected in 2010. Yet this is too slow to strongly affect energy and environmental challenges. Faster societal deployment is slowed because PV is perceived to be too costly. Classic economic evaluations would put PV electricity in the range of 15–50 c/kWh, depending on local sunlight and system size. But PV has an unusual, overlooked value: systems can last for a very long time with almost no operating costs, much like, e.g., the Hoover Dam. This long life is rarely taken into account. The private sector cannot use it because far-future cash flow does not add to asset value. But we should not be evaluating PV by business metrics. Governments already make up the difference in return on investment needed to deploy PV. PV deployment is government infrastructure development or direct purchases. Thus the question is: Does the usually unevaluated aspect of long life at predictably low operating costs further motivate governments to deploy more PV, sooner? & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. (footnote continued) 20-year assumption which is commonly made today.’’ Modules have been tested and monitored at NREL’s Outdoor Test Facility since the early 1980s and by the Joint Research Council’s European Solar Test Installation (http://re.jrc.ec.europa.eu/esti/activities_projects/module_lifetime_en.htm) since 1982. 3 Mitchell stated: ‘‘ythere is no longer any catastrophic failure mechanism in inverters,’’ implying that lifetime expectations can be extended well beyond those of the recent past. Heacox (2010) stated: ‘‘The financial modeling norm for PV