Solar power is getting cheaper. A new record, just under 0,015 USD / kWh, was struck at the end of November in Dubai in a tender competition in which Saudi ACWA Power submitted the lowest bid for a giant facility of 900 megawatts.
The price can be compared with the price in the Nordic electricity market of 0,030-0,035 $, while prices in the continent are around 0,045-0,050 $ in forward trade in Germany and France.
In 2014, it was a sensation when ACWA Power offered solar cells for the equivalent of just under 60 cents, even in Dubai, and since then the price has thus fallen by 75 percent.
Nuclear power most expensive
Also in the US, the cost of solar is low, corresponding to between $3 and $0,040 for electricity from solar cell fields and wind power, according to the large asset management company Lazard’s latest compilation. New coal power costs equivalent to $0,07 – 0,015 $ and new nuclear power 0,0115-0,0180 USD.
The solar cell field is part of the giant Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Park totaling over 5000 megawatts, and will be in operation in 2021. Part of the project is another type of solar power where the sun heats a fluid driven through a turbine with a generator. Such thermal solar power is considerably more expensive, but since heat can be stored, it can supply most electricity when demand is greatest, or at night.
Leave a Reply