Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s head of solar analysis has revealed that new solar installations in 2018 are likely to have hit as high as 109 gigawatts (GW) and that growth in 2019 could see annual capacity additions increase to as much as 141 GW.
Solar power prices have been dropping faster than people expected, even faster than experts expected, and even faster than bullish experts expected.
I wrote about this general point a couple of years ago for an article for The Economist Group. The question I was supposed to explore was whether we needed solar technology breakthroughs in order for solar to take over the electricity generation market.
The cost of solar PV has hit a stunning new low – with a bid for a 300MW solar project in Saudi Arabia pitched at just $US1.79c/kWh – or $US17.9/MWh ($A22.7/MWh) – with no subsidies. This offer represents a significant fall of 75 per cent in costs below those considered “not credible” less than two years ago.
