Even after the sharp hikes we’ve been seeing in the retail cost of conventional electricity, getting your power from a small solar-photovoltaic system can be twice as expensive. That's according to SolarBuzz, publisher of an online index that tracks price trends for the solar power industry.

According to SolarBuzz, the fully amortized cost of electricity, before incentive programs, from a 2-kilowatt grid connected system in a sunny climate is about 37-1/2 cents per kilowatt hour. Their index also shows that the cost of electricity from a  larger, 50-kilowatt commercial system is now about 27-cents a kilowatt-hour.

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