The always-interesting Giles Parkinson describes a new low in energy costs.
"A new contract signed by a utility in Arizona has set a new low price for large-scale solar power in that country, but more importantly has also smashed expectations of the combined cost of large-scale solar and battery storage.
"Tucson Electric Power (TEP) this week announced it would buy solar energy from a new 100MW solar plant at the historically low price of less than US3c/kWh – less than half of what it had agreed to pay in similar contracts over the last few years.
"The project will also include 30MW/120MWh of battery storage, and the company says that the power purchase agreement for the combined output is “significantly less” than US4.5c/kWh – nearly two-thirds cheaper than the previous such contract struck in Hawaii, and well below the cost of a gas-fired peaking plant.
The scale of the battery storage is interesting, at between 20 minutes and 1h 20m peak production.
No one will ever build another gas power generator. So the future is solar and wind, with batteries.
Solar is dispersed rooftop installed for non-economic reasons or utility scale, competing as the sun shines.
Wind, solar's ideal compliment, is concentrated in the hands of few rational players. If it can do comparable install costs this is game over. The new turbines are massive (eg IFN's latest for Bodangora 3.45mw) so fewer towers generate more, more efficiently.
Fun days ahead.
Ash
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