What’s more exciting than talking about the cheapest solar power in the world and disruptive technology with Michael Liebreich?
One of the biggest solar power stories of the past year — if not the biggest — was the record-low price of solar power that was bid in Dubai toward the end of the year. ACWA Power bid 5.98 cents per kWh, well below the cost of natural gas in the region (which is 9 cents per kWh). Michael Liebreich — Chairman of the Advisory Board of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, and founder of the company under the original name of New Energy Finance — was kind enough to invite me to dinner the other night after a World Future Energy Summit panel that he moderated. On the way to dinner, our conversation was already getting so interesting that we stopped to record a bit of it.
I really think the video is worth a watch, so I’m going to encourage more of you than normal to watch it by not writing up a summary. However, in case you need a little bit of a taster, I will list some of the key topics discussed. Check them out below the video.
Key topics Michael Liebreich and I had fun chatting about:
- The world’s cheapest solar power bid.
- A conversation between Kerry Adler, President of Sky Power, and Paddy Padmanathan, CEO ACWA Power, about the financial viability of that bid.
- The solar power experience curve, and ways in which costs can and will continue to come down.
- Disruptive technologies and the “Kodak moment” of incumbent industries that don’t transition quickly enough.
- The future of utilities.
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