Subsidies or tax incentives are required to level the playing field, fossil fuels are heavily subsidized as was/is nuclear. As it develops with the support of tax breaks it can develop economies of scale and research breakthroughs just like all the other subsidized industries. I personally think it is already viable having lived off grid with just solar and wind to supply 98% of my power. The key is massive reductions in use. If homeowners use it in a business as usual scenario, ie I use XKwh's now and therefore I need to generate Xkwh's renewably it is usually grid tied, large, and in most instances requires professional installation, all of which makes it extremely expensive.

Cut your use by 75% and store what you capture in batteries rather than feeding it into the grid and the carbon savings are much larger and the system you need is much smaller and therefore cheaper. Build it yourself and save mucho dollars. Additional savings come from not buying all the energy wasting gadgets we fill our houses with. If your system is not designed to power them, why buy them?

Written in August 2008