I co-posted this over at theWatt.com.
Portugal is breaking ground on the worlds single largest photovoltaic (solar cell) electricity power plant. The plant, situated in Serpa, will cost €58 million to construct. It will have a peak power rating of 11 megawatts spread out over 60 hectares.
Portugal gets quite a lot of sun − not as much as Murcia or Sicily, but still a lot. According to RETScreen's database Evora (the closest inland location to Serpa in the database) gets 2.82 MWh/m2 per annum with the use of a two-axis tracking system. I did a quick calculation with RETScreen and came up with a 25.8 % capacity factor. That correlates to a annual power production of 25000 MWh. If amortized over 25 years, the facility will produce power for a rate of €0.093/kWh plus maintenance costs.
Paying 10 cents a kWh for a clean source of power seems like a good deal to me, and this is with global prices for photovoltaic modules drifting up to $5.50 / Wp.
For something like a big nuclear plant I would certainly think interest is quite important. Photovoltaics on the other hand are highly incremental in their installed capacity. I don't know what the precise difference would work out between the "big plant" discrete case and the continious installation of PV modules... something to look into sometime.
ReplyDeleteI didn't deal with the degredation of the panels either, which would be approximately 20 % over 25 years.
I think that this is a good start
ReplyDeletefor the idea of a technology that
can be improved with an excellent
promising future. Because if we can
use the sun as a source of energy
for a cleaner and healthier invi-
ronment why not use it. and by the
way the entire earth will thank to
those innovative people.