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New Record Set for World's Cheapest Solar, Now Undercutting Coal (bloomberg.com)
Anna Hirtenstein, reporting for Bloomberg: Solar power set another record-low price as renewable energy developers working in the United Arab Emirates shrugged off financial turmoil in the industry to promise projects costs that undercut even coal-fired generators. Developers bid as little as 2.99 cents a kilowatt-hour to develop 800 megawatts of solar-power projects for the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, the utility for the Persian Gulf emirate. That's 15 percent lower than the previous record set in Mexico last month, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The lowest priced solar power has plunged almost 50 percent in the past year. Saudi Arabia's Acwa Power International set a record in January 2015 by offering to build a portion of the same Dubai solar park for power priced at 5.85 cents per kilowatt-hour. Records were subsequently set in Peru and Mexico before Dubai reclaimed its mantel as purveyor of the world's cheapest solar power. "This bid tells us that some bidders are willing to risk a lot for the prestige of being the cheapest solar developer," said Jenny Chase, head of solar analysis at BNEF. "Nobody knows how it's meant to work."
Don't you mean a bet? A wager? Speculation? I think we should wait to see what is produced...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
"This bid tells us that some bidders are willing to risk a lot for the prestige of being the cheapest solar developer," said Jenny Chase, head of solar analysis at BNEF. "Nobody knows how it's meant to work."
Well, I'm neither an economist nor an... electrician? But I have bought a lot of printers that I palmed off on the thrift store people after the original ink cartridge ran out, because it was cheaper to just buy a new one. So I'll take a shot.
The low bidders are selling their electricity for less than it costs to produce because, at some point in the future, they hope to charge a higher price for it, after all of their competitors have had to exit the industry, and, due to inertial effects, would find it difficult to re-enter.
No other industry does this, of course. Oh, wait, almost every other industry does this now.
Until we get more solar power than our day-time consumption your point is moot. Night/rain isn't a problem when 99% of your energy comes from fossils fuels which must be the case in UAE. They'll simply burn less coal/oil/gas when it's sunny. And on average, that means 3/kWh which is fantastic.
About fifteen years ago, when I started hearing the warnings about fishing in certain lakes because of the mercury levels, thats what really did it for me. I'm talking very remote lakes out in the booneys of the west(where I live). The coal pollution travels hundreds and thousands of miles(Seattle gets Chinese coal pollution).
How someone could defend burning coal is beyond me...
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range