A very concise summary of the basic numbers of solar PV and thermal solar generation. The bottom line is the economics are completely uncompetitive except in very special typically remote geographies. Time will tell if new technologies such as Nanosolar will change those numbers — but a huge improvement is required, especially when one fully accounts for land area, life-span of the capital investment, and the cost of the duplicate generation required to supply power when the solar generation is offline.
Because solar power is available only when the sun shines and varies with the seasons of the year, statements about how solar units can produce enough electricity to serve a large number of homes are misleading. Since a solar unit cannot supply power continuously, dispatchable generators (usually fossil-fuel) are required to provide back-up power to the system.
(…) What Does Solar Cost?
The Energy Information Administration assumes the total overnight capital cost of solar thermal technology to be $5,021 per kilowatt (in 2007 dollars).[16]
The Energy information Administration calculates the levelized cost of generating technologies, which is the present value of the total cost of building and operating a generating plant over its financial life, converted to equal annual payments and amortized over expected annual generation. In 2016, the levelized cost of solar thermal is 26.37 cents per kilowatt hour (in 2007 dollars) and for solar photovoltaic, it is 50 percent higher, 39.57 cents per kilowatt hour. The costs for solar technologies are higher than that of natural gas combined cycle, whose costs are 7.99 to 8.39 cents per kilowatt hour. Pulverized coal and coal-fired integrated gasification combined cycle have levelized costs at 9.46 and 10.35 cents per kilowatt hour, respectively. EIA includes a 3-percentage point increase in the cost of capital when evaluating investments in greenhouse gas intensive technologies, such as these coal projects, which is equivalent to a $15 per ton carbon dioxide emission fee, and a 2 percentage point reduction in the cost-of-capital for eligible renewable technologies under the loan guarantee program of the Stimulus Act. [17]
According to Houston-based Standard Renewable Energy, an installed residential solar system for a 2,100-square-foot-home would cost about $25,500. [18]
Land Mass
For comparison purposes, the land mass and output of California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant is compared to the land mass required to produce a similar quantity of electricity using solar power. The 2,200 megawatt nuclear facility requires 3 square kilometers, while a solar power station would require 687.5 square kilometers with a power density of 3 watts per square meter.[19]
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