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New York. In the United States, solar energy may finally get its day in the sun. The high costs that for years made it impractical as a mainstream source of energy are plummeting. Real estate companies are racing to install solar panels on office buildings. Utilities are erecting large solar panel “farms” near big cities and in desolate deserts. And creative financing plans are making solar more realistic than ever for homes.

Solar power installations doubled in the United States last year and are expected to double again this year. More solar energy is being planned than any other power source, including nuclear, coal, natural gas and wind.

“We are at the beginning of a turning point,” said Andrew Beebe, who runs global sales for Suntech Power, a manufacturer of solar panels.

Solar power has been held back by costs. It’s still about three times more expensive than electricity produced by natural gas, according to the Energy Information Administration.

But the financial barriers are falling fast. Solar panel prices have plunged by two-thirds since 2008. Homeowners who want to go solar can do so for free and pay the same or less for their power.

Last month two of the nation’s biggest utilities, Exelon and NextEra Energy, each acquired a large California solar power farm in the early stages of development. Another utility, NRG Energy, has announced a plan with Bank of America and the real estate firm Prologis to spend $1.4 billion to install solar systems on 750 commercial rooftops.

Nationwide, solar power installations grew by 102 percent from 2009 to 2010, by far the fastest rate in the past five years.

Making solar affordable still requires large tax breaks and other subsidies from federal and state governments. But prices of solar panels are falling so fast that its advocates now credibly claim that solar will be able to compete with fossil fuels even when the federal solar subsidy shrinks by two-thirds in 2016.

Solar panel prices have been declining for years because of lower costs for polycrystalline silicon, the main raw material for most solar panels, and larger-scale manufacturing, especially in Asia. In the last six months, demand has dropped sharply in Germany, the world’s biggest solar market, in response to shrinking subsidies. This has created a global glut of solar panels and accelerated the decline in prices.

Solar panels, which are priced based on the amount of power they can produce during full sunshine, sold for $1.34 per watt in mid-September, according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. That’s down from $1.90 at the beginning of 2010. In 2008, they sold for $4 a watt.

The glut has been gut-wrenching for companies that make solar panels. Many of them remain profitable and are growing. But three US panel makers have filed for bankruptcy in two months.

Falling profit margins are scaring investors, and the market will not get any easier for small solar panel makers. General Electric, Samsung and other big companies are entering the market.

This should increase supply and bring down costs even further.

GE announced this month that it would build the largest panel factory in the United States, near Denver.

Associated Press