"Electricity prices could go up 50 percent over the next 10 years. Then solar will be cheaper than the grid," said Jesse W. Pichel, a senior analyst at Piper Jaffray, a financial investment groups, who expects rising oil and coal prices and falling solar costs as companies innovate the way semiconductor chip firms did in the past and still do to some effect with the technology advancing 2 years every six months. For now, solar energy sytems, solar power and solar heaters rely heavily on government subsidies, including a $2,000 federal tax credit for installations, supplemented by generous aid in great states  like California, New Jersey and the District of Columbia, Washington D.C.