The Prometheus Institute for Sustainable Development issued a report detailing reasons for this prediction including an increased supply of silicon and increases in production efficiency. There is no doubt solar technology is in the public and policy eye. Recently, the US Department of Energy announced a $22.7M investment in basic research related to solar technologies.

Even with the price drop, unless the market forces change dramatically by 2010, solar PV will still be on the cusp of economic viability, at least at utility scale. At present prices, a megawatt of solar PV power carries costs in the $180/MWh range and has a capacity factor (no storage) of 24%. That means that the annual production per megawatt of deployed capacity is around 2,100 MWh. Compared with wind for instance who’s cost to produce is in the $45/MWh range and capacity factors greater than 35%, it’s still a tough sell even when the price comes down 40%.

Solar technology is advancing and that is fundamentally a good thing in the renewable energy space. But don’t simply believe headlines, there is still significant work to complete before solar PV reaches unsubsidized commercial viability.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 24th, 2007 at 7:38 am and is filed under Solar.