The photovoltaic (PV) panels now in popular use for solar power generation are not worth their cost, according to a University of California Berkeley report. Severin Borenstein, director of the UC Energy Institute and a professor at the UC Berkeley business school, called existing technology ‘a loser’ in a research paper. ‘We are throwing money away by installing the current solar PV technology,’ he said. Borenstein called for more state and federal money to be spent on research into better technology, rather than on subsidies for residential solar power systems. ‘We need a major scientific breakthrough, and we won’t get it by putting panels up on houses,’ he said. Borenstein also called for changes in the pricing of electricity, which he said should vary depending on the time of day. The way power grids are now run undermines the effectiveness of solar PV systems. Changes coming to California by 2012 will increase the value of solar power systems, he said, because residential customers will be able to choose prices that change during the day. In his analysis, Borenstein found that a typical PV system costs between $86,000 and $91,000 to install, while the value […]