24th
At Colorado State University they have developed solar panels that can be produced at less than $1 per watt, these panels should reduce the cost of generating solar electricity for roughly the same cost as other forms of generated electricity(Coal, Oil, etc).
This is a good thing. But interestingly doesn’t take in to account the full actual cost of producing electricity using Oil or Coal.
Does this include:
the cost of redeveloping the land used to mine the coal?
the cost of planting trees to offset the carbon emissions produced by burning coal?
the cost of treating respiratory problems of people living in the area near the power plants?
Environmental cost is also an economic cost but it’s easy to ignore because it’s usually a cost past on to others. eg. ‘Australians threw out over 21 million tonnes of garbage in 1996/97, which cost about $1256 million for collection and disposal’
I wonder how much of this the companies that over package their products paid for.
