cost declines

New research has revealed that solar PV and wind continue to be the cheapest new-build electricity generation options in Australia, even when considering their additional integration costs such as energy storage and transmission. 

Faced with the threat of curtailment as more renewables enter the grid, utility-scale solar developers are heightening their focus on hybrid PV-storage projects to take advantage of demand for flexibility services and falling battery costs.

Solar PV and wind will continue to be the cheapest sources of new electricity generation capacity in Australia, even when integration costs are included, according to new research from the country’s science agency, CSIRO, and the Australian Energy Market Operator.

Enerparc and Themis among winners of oversubscribed PV-only 150MW tender, which awarded 204MW-plus at average prices of €0.0547/kWh.

PV prices have plummeted in recent years but predicting the exact costs in the future seems like an impossible task. KT Tan of Viridian Solar presents one equation that would appear to be able to do just that.

Despite a significant drop in global renewable energy investment last year, a corresponding rise in renewables deployment spelled encouraging news for the sector, according to a new UN Environment Programme (UNEP) report entitled ‘More Bang for the Buck’.

Despite regulatory ambiguities, the general consensus from industry stakeholders at this year’s Solar Energy UK | Clean Energy Live exhibition is that Africa’s solar sector is ripe for new entrants, posing a significant opportunity that should not be missed.

Wind and solar bids were as low as US$49MWh and US$59MWh respectively, according to the first analysis of Argentina’s 1GW renewable energy tender.

Experiencing some of the highest irradiation hours on the globe, Africa has potential to reach more than 70GW of solar PV capacity by 2030, a new report by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has said.

A significant decline in the cost of PV modules and project construction, as well as a shift from small-scale projects to cheaper capex utility-scale projects, is a main driver for an clean energy investment slowdown in 2016, says Bloomberg News Energy Finance (BNEF).