Solar power costs to be competitive by 2015-study

The costs of making electricity with solar power within a decade will reach parity with power made with fossil fuels like natural gas and coal, a study announced on Tuesday by supporters of renewable and solar energy says.

“As solar prices decline and the capital and fuel costs for coal, natural gas, and nuclear plants rise, the U.S. will reach a crossover point by around 2015,” writers of the report, publisher Clean Edge and environmental nonprofit Co-op America, said in a press statement.
The statement says solar power can make 10 percent of U.S. power generation by 2025, or about 255,000 of installed solar generation.

Installed solar power — both photovoltaic and concentrated solar power — has jumped to 3,000 megawatts in 2008 from 600 MW in 2003, the study said. Even that higher number is less than a tenth of 1 percent of total U.S. power generation.

It will cost utilities between $450 billion and $560 billion by 2025 ($26 billion to $33 billion per year) in capital costs to reach the 2025 goal.

Reuters