I saw an article on wave power a few weeks ago which breaks down the structure as follows: Coal (3 cents) kilowatt hour Natural gas (4 to 5 cents) kilowatt hour. Wave (5 to 8 cents) [long-term goal] for kilowatt hour. Offshore wind turbines (15 cents) kilowatt hour. * Solar (18 or more cents, depending on the circumstances.) kilowatt hour.
Producing at lesser than 3 cents seems astonishing, considering this last article pegs solar at 18 cents/kwhr, not to mention the leasing and operational costs of having manufacturing in the U.S
Here is the original article on Wave power, which is set to go live in California by 2012 http://www.news.com/Wave-power-to-go-commercial-in-Californi...
The N.Y times article cites "the first solar panel manufacturer to be able to profitably sell solar panels for less than $1 a watt. With a $1-per-watt panel," he said, "it is possible to build $2-per-watt systems."
According to the Energy Department cites: 'building a new coal plant costs about $2.1 a watt, plus the cost of fuel and emissions, he said.
Its interesting how they play with numbers, the N.Y times numbers on solar are for building plants, the other source on news.com is for kw/hour indicating operational costs for putting it on the grid.