From Reuters:
Solar power is on pace for the first time this year to contribute more new electricity to the grid than will any other form of energy – a feat driven more by economics than green mandates.
The cost of electricity from large-scale solar installations now is comparable to and sometimes cheaper than natural gas-fired power, even without incentives aimed at promoting environmentally friendly power, according to industry players and outside cost studies.
…Unsubsidized utility-scale solar power costs $50 to $70 per megawatt-hour (or 5 to 7 cents a kilowatt hour), compared with $52 to $78 for the most efficient type of gas plant, according to a 2015 study by investment bank Lazard.
Generating power from residential rooftop panels is far more expensive, ranging from $184 to $300 a MWh before subsidies, the report said.
Many trace the tipping point for utility-scale solar to a 2014 announcement by Austin Energy that it would buy power from a new 150 megawatt solar plant – enough to light and cool 30,000 homes – for 5 cents a kilowatt hour. At the time, it was a record low price for solar power. Since then, projects have brought the price below 4 cents a kWh.
The Austin Energy contract opened a market for big solar in sunny Southeastern states, Jim Hughes, chief executive of utility-scale solar developer First Solar told investors in April.
“The response has been, quite honestly, astonishing,” Hughes told them. “The utility world suddenly sat up and took notice and said, I had no idea that’s where the cost of solar stood.”
Large-scale solar is taking off even in states without policies promoting green power.
Georgia, for example, was the sixth-largest U.S. solar market last year with very little rooftop solar.
But the math only works in places with so-called “net metering” laws, which require utilities to buy the electricity rooftop panels generate at prices far above what they pay for centralized power.
It’s true:
Still got a ways to go to knock off Mr Dirty, though.
