A southern California utility has received contracts under which small-scale photovoltaic farms would produce electricity at a lower long-term cost than electricity generated by a gas-powered plant.
Southern California Edison has asked regulators to approve 20-year contracts under which it plans to buy a total of 250 megawatts of electricity at a cost below the "market price referent," which represents the projected leveled cost of electricity generated by a typical gas turbine over the same 20-year period.
Todd Woody summed up the situation this way in the online journal Grist:
So in plain English, the developers of these solar farms have told the utility that they can produce electricity cheaper than a fossil fuel power plant.
Woody also noted that in response to its request for bids, Southern California Edison received offers for ten times as much power as it was prepared to purchase, meaning that literally dozens of unrelated firms were eager to sell photovoltaic power at competitive prices:
The increasing competitiveness of photovoltaic power is a reflection of the steep drop in solar modules prices in recent years, thanks in large part to the rapid expansion of manufacturing capacity by Chinese solar companies. But solar modules themselves typically represent just half the cost of a project, so the growing competitiveness of solar energy probably also is due to developers' increased efficiency at building power plants and cutting other costs.
The Southern California Edison bids are significant because proponents of nuclear- and fossil fuel-generated electricity have long dismissed photovoltaic power as “too expensive” and therefore damaging to the economy.
Monte Paulsen researches sustainability for the nonprofit Tyee Solutions Society.
3
Login or register to post comments
snert
1 year ago
Believe it
when you actually see it.
YCSTS
1 year ago
Solar PV is a huge waste of Taxpayers Money.
Nope. Latest EIA (2011) puts Levelized Cost, for delivery in 2016 of Solar PV at 21 cents per kwh. CCGT, combined cycle gas turbine at 6.6 cents per kwh.
http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/pdf/2016levelized_costs_aeo2011.pdf
The only way Solar could be cheaper than gas is if there is Carbon Tax/Credits and huge subsidies on Solar PV installations. Otherwise, Nuclear is the cheapest scalable low carbon power source.
Take a Solar PV panel the size of a large picture window of 7 ft x 5 ft. So according to PVWatts for Los Angeles, fixed at latitude, in Jan you will get avg 4.44 kwh/M^2/day & 3.23 AC kwh/day for a 1kw peak panel. At 16% efficiency that works out to 1.78 kwh per day, for the 35 sq ft Solar Panel. That’s an avg output of 74 watts in sunny Los Angeles, with a perfect roof, no shade trees or buildings and cleaned weekly, and that only if it is a Sunny Day. THAT IS PATHETIC!
Run the same calculation for July, and you get 90 watts avg.
No matter how cheap they make Solar Cells, they are basically a double paned sealed window with solar cells sandwiched in-between and a run-of-the-mill double paned Window unit will cost you the equivalent of $1 per Wpk. And $1 per Wpk for the hardware, inverter, switchgear, wiring, mounting and installation, means YOU-AIN'T GETTING LESS THAN $2 PER Wpk. I'm still waiting for Window prices (mass produced in huge quantities, for a long time) to come down - instead of going up.
So it is possible that some day Solar PV prices will fall to $2 per Wpk installed, after which material & energy price inflation will cause the price to rise again. Latest price of Solar PV installed is $7.16 per Wpk. See:
http://openpv.nrel.gov/
And the Solar Peaks at noon. With 50% of peak @ 8am & 4pm. Output only from 7:30 to 5:30pm. Peak Grid Demand is @ 4pm and is high 8am to 9pm. So if you store the Solar in batteries to make it useful you will at least double the cost. Complement it with NG and you will get >85% NG, <15% Solar. Big Help that is.
seth
1 year ago
Real cost vs vaporware
As opposed to to California vaporware here's a real solar project that just turned the switch in NCarolina last week.
http://www.biofuelswatch.com/solar-farm-starts-operation/
$45 a watt average, 17% capacity factor. By contrast new US nuclear is $4 , new Candu is $2.5 and both are predicted to drop shortly to $1 a watt.
Will California or run of the river BC have any industry left in 10 years?
Built with fire sale priced solar panels from the collapse of the EURO solar market, solar cost is now dominated by installation, auxiliary electronics, and glass and steel - has nowhere to but up.