This is the question many Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) industry players have been asking and it seems it could have a positive answer.
According to José Alfonso Nebrera, Chief Executive Officer at ACS Cobra and Elisa Prieto, Strategy Director at Abengoa, the conditions are ripe for the CSP industry to achieve grid parity.
“We would be able to compete with gas if we are talking about a place with high direct normal irradiance (DNI), where natural gas prices are around USD$10 per Million BTUs, with natural gas plant’s utilization is around 70% and with CO2 emissions costing around US$20 and USD$30 per tonne,” Nebrera notes.
On the other hand, Prieto highlights the importance of the formula used to calculate CSP costs. “When we are talking about competitiveness we refer to the levelized cost of energy (LCOE). Why do we use this measure and not capital expenditure (CAPEX), for instance? Because CAPEX does not reflect the real cost of electricity generation”, indicates Prieto.
Nebrera emphasizes the significant cost reduction CSP has experienced over the past few years, as a cause for optimism. “When we began Andasol in 2008, we were paid around €280 per MWh. Nowadays, in South Africa our price is roughly half of that”, Nebrera adds.
These and other important considerations are debated in the article, together with industry players who have a different view on the matter.
Download the article by clicking on the following link: Could CSP become cost-competitive by 2020?
If you want to find out more about the programme, please visit this link: CSP Today Sevilla 2014.
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