MITEI (MIT Energy Initiative) releases report on the future of solar energy

[kristopher]

4. Scale and per unit costs are only a part of the picture...

...considered when purchasing decisions are made. I have nothing against taking advantage of it when it is blended into a larger set of values, but as I noted, there are other avenues where the "willingness to buy" and the localized profit motive are going to generate far more rapid growth than putting our eggs in the basket of entities that are dedicated to preserving the value of their existing investments in infrastructure. Just in case that isn't clear - that infrastructure would be the generating and transmissions assets presently in place.
No where is the economic effect of competition between centralized and distributed addressed. I'd argue that ignoring the existence of the industry's self preservation motive pretty much invalidates that entire section of the analysis and the complete lack of even acknowledgement of the existence of this dilemma - the premier topic currently affecting the shape of electric planning and policy globally - contaminates the entire paper.