Comments on: 20MW Solar Power Plant for Canberra (Will Be Australia’s Largest) http://cleantechnica.com/2012/09/11/20mw-solar-power-plant-for-canberra-will-be-australias-largest/ Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More. Mon, 29 Dec 2014 00:27:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.1 By: Ronald Brak http://cleantechnica.com/2012/09/11/20mw-solar-power-plant-for-canberra-will-be-australias-largest/#comment-131922 Tue, 11 Sep 2012 23:26:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=42516#comment-131922 Australia is in the somewhat unique position of having retail electricity prices that are about seven times higher than wholesale prices. As a result, grid only solar doesn’t make economic sense compared to point of use solar. We are currently installing point of use solar that provides electricity at a lower cost than this grid only project and with a much greater economic return. It would have made much more sense to use the money to install point of use solar instead as this grid only project is not competitive.

That said, it is possible, although I think unlikely, that grid only solar will be useful in Australia in the future when its price comes down. And a reverse auction is likely to be the cheapest way to get it.

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