Economics

The sunlight is available in abundance and that is also free of cost. The solar devices and their installation ion are slightly costly compare to the electric and other devices, but the maintenance cost is zero for solar devices. The Indian Government is putting efforts to make people buy solar devices. The government given 100% tax subsidy for solar devices. The PV industry is beginning to adopt levelized cost of energy (LCOE) as the unit of cost. The results of a sample calculation can be found on pp. 52, 53 of the 2007 DOE report describing the plans for solar power 2007-2011.  For a 10 MW plant in Phoenix, AZ, the LCOE is estimated at $0.15 to 0.22/kWh.