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How Solar Got Cheap : Planet Money For a long time, only rich people could afford to put solar panels on the roof. Not anymore. Here's what changed.

Planet Money

How Solar Got Cheap

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David Kestenbaum

How Solar Got Cheap

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Technicians install solar panels on a roof. This process has gotten a lot faster, and cheaper, over the years. AP hide caption

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AP

Technicians install solar panels on a roof. This process has gotten a lot faster, and cheaper, over the years.

AP

This episode originally ran in 2015.

Solar panels used to be something only rich people could afford.

But then a few things happened — some by accident, and some on purpose — that drastically lowered the price.

Now solar is cheap. And its key market demographic has shifted away from rich environmentalists to people who want to save money on their power bill. Here's how it happened.

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Music: "The Lucky One," "Monte Fiasco" and "Binary Finery."

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