More Evidence of a Distributed Solar Sweet Spot

March 28th, 2012 by John Farrell

If the cost of electricity were the only factor in energy discussions, we’d probably have a lot more coal and a lot less renewable energy. But the truth is that renewable energy can compete on cost and distributed renewable energy has a lot more value beyond just electricity, as illustrated in this one facet in this brief examination by the Clean Coalition.

Distributed solar finds a cost sweet spot.

In their analysis, the Clean Coalition focused on two elements: the cost to produce electricity from solar facilities of various sizes and the cost to deliver that power (via the distribution or transmission system). As it turns out, fees to access the transmission system and transmission losses can offset any economies of scale from central station power generation.

The chart below illustrates the “sweet spot” balance between economies of scale and costs for transmission.

For context, in their latest examination of the levelized cost of energy generation, investment bank Lazard shows these prices are competitive with new coal power plants and substantially cheaper than new gas peaking power plants.

Of course, there’s more to the value of distributed renewable energy than just cost to generate and transmission access, whether it’s the economic multiplier from potential local ownership or the political value of community-based generation. But it’s good to know that even in this narrow view, distributed generation can compete with large-scale power generation.

This post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.

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Tags: cost, distributed energy, Distributed Solar, economies of scale, Electricity, Energy, levelized cost, Solar PV, Transmission, US

About the Author

John Farrell directs the Democratic Energy program at ILSR and he focuses on energy policy developments that best expand the benefits of local ownership and dispersed generation of renewable energy. His seminal paper, Democratizing the Electricity System, describes how to blast the roadblocks to distributed renewable energy generation, and how such small-scale renewable energy projects are the key to the biggest strides in renewable energy development. Farrell also authored the landmark report Energy Self-Reliant States, which serves as the definitive energy atlas for the United States, detailing the state-by-state renewable electricity generation potential. Farrell regularly provides discussion and analysis of distributed renewable energy policy on his blog, Energy Self-Reliant States (energyselfreliantstates.org), and articles are regularly syndicated on Grist and Renewable Energy World. John Farrell can also be found on Twitter @johnffarrell, or at jfarrell@ilsr.org.

Mattpeffly

There is a boat load of flats roofs and parking lots around the world. The amount of distributed PV you could place and never touch open land is vast. On top of the other distributed PV benifits, you also get shaded parking lots. The Cincinnati zoo did this, much nicer walk on sunny days.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  Yep, if you look at any city from a bird’s eye view, even someplace like NYC, there’s a TON of empty parking lots / car parks.
  - Bob_Wallace
    
    Parking lots are major opportunities for solar. Much easier than dealing with rooftops.
    
    Provide sheltered parking. Stick in the conduit for charging, if not the actual chargers at the same time.
    
    People who don’t have a place to charge at night (urban apartment dwellers) should be given a decent rate for daytime charging and priority on electrified parking spots.
Ross

Assuming about 30 acres for a 5MW plant, there must be a lot of car parks that large near shopping centres that consume at least that much power.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  Yep, if you look at any city from a bird’s eye view, even someplace like NYC, there’s a TON of empty parking lots / car parks. We should use ‘em.