Brian Wingfield wrote for Bloomberg 26 May 2011,

GE Sees Solar Cheaper Than Fossil Power in Five Years

Solar power may be cheaper than electricity generated by fossil fuels and
nuclear reactors within three to five years because of innovations, said
Mark M. Little, the global research director for General Electric Co. (GE)

“If we can get solar at 15 cents a kilowatt-hour or lower, which I’m
hopeful that we will do, you’re going to have a lot of people that
are going to want to have solar at home,” Little said yesterday in an
interview in Bloomberg’s Washington office. The 2009 average U.S. retail
rate per kilowatt-hour for electricity ranges from 6.1 cents in Wyoming to
18.1 cents in Connecticut, according to Energy Information Administration
data released in April.

GE is working on thin film solar.
Meanwhile, costs are already coming down:

Solar-panel makers from Arizona to Shanghai are expanding factories to
add more cost savings that analysts say will sustain the industry’s
expansion. Installations may increase by as much as 50 percent in 2011,
worth about $140 billion, as cheaper panels and thin film make developers
less dependent on government subsidies, Bloomberg New Energy Finance
forecast.

The cost of solar cells, the main component in standard panels, has
fallen 21 percent so far this year, and the cost of solar power is now
about the same as the rate utilities charge for conventional power in
the sunniest parts of California, Italy and Turkey, the London-based
research company said.

This continual cost decrease of solar power has been going on
for a decade or more.

-jsq