In the US, -“The amount of wind generating capacity added last year exceeded that of all other sources, including gas-fired power.”
Solar is the new wind.
Everything changes from here on out.
Solar power will be the second- biggest source of generating capacity added to the U.S. electric grid this year, according to Sharp Corp.’s Recurrent Energy unit.
“Solar is going to move into the No. 2 position in terms of new build, second only to gas,” Recurrent Chief Executive Officer Arno Harris said in an interview yesterday at the company’s main office in San Francisco.
Rooftop solar systems can be installed for about $4 a watt and utility-scale systems for $2 a watt, Harris said. “We can see our way to $1.50,” he said. “At those kinds of costs, we’re competitive in the Southwest with conventional electricity.”
Panel prices have fallen almost 69 percent in the past two years, benefiting companies such as Recurrent that purchase and install the equipment and sell electricity from the systems to utilities. Falling costs also have enabled developers to accept lower-priced contracts. First Solar Inc. has signed a power purchase agreement for a project in New Mexico that will sell electricity at a lower rate than new coal plants earn.
“Solar has clearly landed in a place where it’s a very bankable asset class and is widely accepted and sought after,” Harris said. “It’s going to follow the same path that other asset classes have followed, which is now a move to public capital markets,” and that may include real estate investment trusts, master limited partnerships or other structures that enable shares of project portfolios to be publicly traded, he said.
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Photovoltaic systems totaling about 3.3 gigawatts were added in 2012, which was 76 percent more than in 2011. The amount of wind generating capacity added last year exceeded that of all other sources, including gas-fired power.
“Solar has moved alongside wind now as one of the three technologies — solar, wind and gas — that are going to be part of our nation’s energy build-out no matter what,” Harris said.
As much as it would have been the socially responsible thing to do, glad I told my parents to hold off on solar for a year or three–it’s going to get a LOT more cost effective soon. This is a good thing.
As the costs of micro-wind and solar get lower and more individuals adopt, expect the forces of denial and insanity and fossil fuel addiction to bellow even louder.
I have had my 3 solar panels all set up..I feel I have protection in case the electricity runs out and it is 110 degrees out
SHouldn’t we worry about the second only to gas line???Lots of gas?
Wind installs spiked last year over concerns about expiring tax breaks so the growth in wind is not likely to be repeated this year or next.
The growth in natural gas fired plants is only a relative good – it is better than seeing more growth in coal plants.
Solar growth, however, continues to increase driven by falling solar panel prices. (There is a reason why Suntech is now in bankruptcy.) Falling panel prices is a tough nut to crack for manufacturers, but a tremendous boon to consumers and installation companies like mine.
Wasn’t there a post on here a month or so ago about the German personal solar market where the average system for the average house was around $6,000? That’s what I’m waiting for.
Geothermal is still too expensive – just looking around at blogs, it’s like $4,000 to $10,000 per ton (got more expensive when the government started giving a 30% tax credit of some sort, so the installers started pushing up the price), and the typical 2000sqft home needs a 3 or 4 ton system.
* the ‘got more expensive’ part is just blog hearsay based on one commenter’s local market, fyi.
The best thing that can happen in the renewables market is for the USA to get the rooftop solar market scaling up to Germany’s levels at similar pricing.
No new transmission lines, lots of decent jobs that can’t be outsourced and significant cuts to peak power pricing.
I’m hoping the next 5 years brings exponential growth to the solar market, and subsequent price drops. Listening to the Post Carbon Institute, that’s about all we have before we realize the oil/gas industry numbers are too optimistic, and that America will not be the new Saudi Arabia of fracked gas or oil. Once we see oil production going downward, it’s do-or-die in terms of a rapid transition to renewables and efficiency. If that happens, Germany with all their passive house building laws and their renewable portfolio will be laughing at the rest of us.