For decades, solar power companies have worked hard to drive the cost of solar-generated electricity downward, to compete with “conventional” central power plants. “Grid parity” is considered to be 8 to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour – the average cost of utility-supplied electricity across the United States.

Speakers at the opening plenary session of SOLAR 2009 said we’ll be at grid parity within a year or two – but that it may not matter.

Ajeet Rohtgi, winner of this year’s Hoyt Clarke Hot [...]

Nevada is shaping up to be a test case for the success of solar power.

The good news, reported on Friday, is that the state’s electric utilities met their 9% RPS requirement in 2008. A number of questions remain going forward, all centered on the issue of how they’ll meet their 12% requirement this year and 15% by 2015.

The utility companies want to continue building central power plants, based on concentrating solar and geothermal stations, photovoltaic arrays and wind farms. [...]