Seems like you’ve got an axe to grind with Unisolar for some reason, but the in the case of the Isofoton modules we use, there are some of their earliest modules still operating with 80% efficiency after 20 years of operation.

Not sure how you define disaster, but I would say that an installed solar generating capacity of 3000 MW, the fourth largest manufacturer in the world of solar power technology and exporting 80 percent of this output to Germany doesn’t really qualify Spain as a disaster!

Electricity rates in Spain have been subsidized by the government for years, whatever the generating technology.

The cost of the environmental damage and clean-up is very rarely counted in the price of coal, nuclear or other dirty types of electricity generation and this leads to a sort of subsidy after the fact, rather than built into a long term program. If this was counted at the beginning then it is likely they would be much more expensive than solar even with the feed-in tariff.

Subsidies are there to build up demand, achieve economy of scale resulting in reduced price and a whole new industry built on cheap, clean energy.

Your money in an US bank is insured by FDIC. Who insures that the panels, inverters, and wiring you have installed will work even for 5 years (after all, many of the current high-cost PV makers won’t be around for that long)? And what happens if you had the misfortune to install BP Solar or Unisolar modules, which are known to ignite on the rooftops? What then? Don’t underestimate the risks of this 25-year investment, or you will learn a painful lesson.

Spain is no powerhouse in PV. It is a well-documented disaster. And the government there may smarten up even more. If PV solar is so great, why does it have to rely on subsidies, thus RAISING electricity rates for EVERYBODY in the country? What, you feel no pity for the poor Spanish ratepayers? Shame on you!