Solar Panels are awesome, but can they pull their own weight?

Solar power hasn't been too impressive in terms of cost due to it's seemingly industry rigged high prices.  Maybe it's all those futuristic sounding metals they put in solar panels, and of course the expensive microchip material of choice silicon which is currently the most effect solar panels to date.  Year after year I keep checking eBay hoping to see 1000 watt solar panel arrays for $1000 bucks, but prices are usually in the $3000 to $4000 rage for ten 100 watt solar panels.  You'll be hard pressed to get a decent 100 watt solar panel for under 400 bucks, however you might be able to find 1000 watt  micro turbine for under $2000.  Price is why wind power is leading the pack in the alternative energy sector.  Wind power cost less then nuclear power watt for watt plus you can't get much more environmentally friendly then wind power To deepen the current behindness of solar panel technology, the life span of a solar panel is relatively short when compared to the lifespan of a wind generator.  Eventually all solar panels will wear out and become unusable, whereas a wind powered wind generator will need maintenance, think of it as a wind power plant that can give decades of service.  In the smaller realm of micro wind turbines, you're still likely to get decades of service out these smaller micro turbines with a few repairs and regular maintenance.  Commercial wind  generators are computer controlled, finely tuned wind harnessing machines that have had tens of thousands of man hours logged in research and development, but that doesn't scare thousands of backwoods green wind turbine loving Americans from building their own homebrew wind generators.  Solar power just doesn't stack up against wind generators from so many angles yet solar has a few ups on wind.  Solar power is very passive, with little or no maintenance during summer months, however in regions where freezing occurs, solar panels can freeze over or ice and snow can cover the panel rendering it worthless.  On a cold icy morning in December just after a snow storm in the rocky mountains, no one in Northern Utah is generating a single watt of solar power.  After spending 40 minutes in the bitter cold on your roof scraping and de-icing your solar panel array you look up to find your neighbors 5k wind turbine generator humming away. 

There are times even in the windiest of regions have doldrums and no wind power can be had, and solar may be perfect to fill in some of those gaps, but still that's not thinking large enough.  The power grid has already been created, the same lines that carry electricity made from coal can carry electricity made from wind turbines.  It seems fairly safe to say that doldrums in Denmark don't happen at the same time as doldrums in Spain.  In essence wind turbines in California could buffer say wind turbines in eastern Texas that were experiencing slow or no wind situations.

Poor Mans Guide to Wind Turbines