The Incredible Shrinking Cost of Solar Energy Drives Mega-Projects around the World

Juan Cole points to The Incredible Shrinking Cost of Solar Energy Drives Mega-Projects around the World.

It is estimated that the all-in-cost for Solar panels will have dropped from USD1.29 per Watt in 2009 to USD0.42 per Watt in 2015. So much has the cost dropped that:

Construction has begun on the world’s largest solar plant. MidAmerican Solar and SunPower Corp. are building a 579 megawatt installation, the Antelope Valley Solar Project, in Kern and Los Angeles counties in California. That is half a gigawatt, just enormous. It will provide electricity to 400,000 homes in the state (roughly 2 million people?), and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 775,000 tons a year. The US emits 5 billion metric tons a year of C02, second only to China, and forms a big part of the world’s carbon problem all by itself. We just need 645 more of the Antelope Valley projects.

Cole overlooks the critical issue of suitable sites for solar plants. All of the easy sites are now being developed. This has certainly lowered the cost of adoption of solar technology, but the problem comes when marginal sites are brought online.

An interesting development has been:

Important new research also shows that hybrid plants that have both solar panels and wind turbines dramatically increase efficiency and help with integration into the electrical grid. Earlier concerns that the turbines would cast shadows and so detract from the efficiency of the solar panels appear to have been overblown. Because in most places in the US there is more sun in the summer and more wind in the winter, a combined plant keeps the electricity feeding into the grid at a more constant rate all year round, which is more desirable than big spikes and fall-offs.

This is a fortunate geography for the USA that they are able to create such hybrid plants.

No one seems to have considered the problem of dust on solar panels. Deserts have loose sand, and wind will severely hamper the collection of solar energy as well as abrade the equipment.