Another record of decreasing in the cost of solar power was set by renewable energy professionals in the United Arab Emirates. According to them, the fall of the growth of this industry is left behind, and now they are ready to offer “clean” energy of the sun, the cost of which may be quite competitive even with coal-fired power.
During the tender of control of electric – water supply Dubai (DEWA) for the construction of the third stage of the 800-megawatt SES Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has offered a price of 2.99 cents per kilowatt-hour. This is on 15 percent lower than the previous record set in Mexico in the last month, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
For comparison, in the USA solar power plants supply electricity to industrial scale at an average price of 5 cents per kWh, taking advantage of government subsidies and tax breaks. In this case, the cost of solar energy is estimated without any government subsidies.
Thus, the cost of the cheapest offers in the market of solar power has fallen by almost 50% over the past year. This is the lowest price of clean energy, recorded today. But the record is unlikely to last long. For tenders 2015 and 2016 there has been a tendency to a sharp decline in prices in the United States and other countries. Over the past 16 months, the cost of electricity in the same Dubai fell almost doubled.
According to the analyst Jenny Chase BNEF (Jenny Chase), many developers of systems for generating solar power in the pursuit of prestige began to significantly reduce prices. “In fact, it is very risky, because no one knows how it will work,” – said Chase.
In addition, now on the background of the bankruptcy of the largest developer of systems for solar power generation SunEdison Inc. It is already possible to call into question the fact, be cheaper projects profitable. In turn, the collapse of the largest global banks forced to reconsider the policy of funding renewable energy projects.
Previously, the company ACWA Power International of Saudi Arabia has set a record in January 2015, proposing to build SES in Dubai with energy at a price of 5.85 cents per kilowatt-hour. At that time, it was the lowest cost in the world.
But in the summer 2015 the city administration of Austin (TX) has received a proposal for the construction of stations, almost 1,300 MW of electricity tariffs is less than $ 0.04 / kWh (with subsidies). Shortly thereafter, it became known that the power company NV Energy has agreed to purchase electricity from the 100-megawatt plant First Solar for $ 0.0387 / kWh.
The commission of experts in Dubai is now examine the technical and commercial details of each offer. According to rumors, the lowest price of 2.99 cents per kVt⋅year suggested Abdul Latif Jameel Company Consortium (Saudi Arabia) + Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (Spain) + Masdar (UAE). Second place with a price of 3.65 cents per kVt⋅year ranked company JinkoSolar (China), the third place with a price of 3.95 cents – a consortium of Acwa Power Company and First Solar (USA). Dubai authorities plan that solar power Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum with total capacity of 3 GW will be built by 2030, the volume of investments is estimated at $ 3 billion.