The Market Value and Cost of Solar Photovoltaic Electricity

The Market Value and Cost of Solar Photovoltaic Electricity Production
Abstract:

The high cost of power from solar photovoltaic (PV) panels has been a major deterrent to the technology's market penetration. Proponents have argued, however, that typical analyses overlook many of the benefits of solar PV. Some of those benefits are in the realm of environmental and security externalities, but others occur within the electricity markets. In this talk, Prof. Severin Borenstein will do a more complete market valuation of solar PV.




Biography:

Severin Borenstein is the E.T. Grether Professor of Business and Public Policy at the Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, and the Director of the University of California Energy Institute.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• CITRIS
• UCBerkeley
• Science
• Technology

[dandoran59]

Holy cow am I that ignorant you talked way over my head and I have a college education whaT WAS THE POINT OF YOUR SPEACH?

[derlambic]

Mr. Borenstein states that production of PV systems should not be supported, but money should flow to R&D to get the prices down.

The idea that you can just do research until you have a robust, efficient and cheap PV system is ridiculous. Real technology development is a gradual process with small improvements in design, production & installation. Some of the improvements can only come from R&D, but many can just be found by actually producing. That is why we need to produce now.

[soylentgreenb]

"How retarded is that! Look at computers - should I have held off on last years laptop purchase because the ones this year have twice as much memory and run for $200 less than what I played?"

Red herring. He's saying you should buy the Intel or AMD processor(wind turbines, geothermal HDR etc.) and hold off on the crappy VIA processor until it is actually competitive.

[soylentgreenb]

"Other than very occasional routine maintenance, it takes ZERO dollars to generate energy from it."

Solar panels are very costly and it doesn't help that you have to pay that massive cost up front.

[soylentgreenb]

"When it comes to the technology's efficiency (for panels), they ARE affected by the market's scale. There's no reason to think that they aren't, and there is some real research going on in that arena."

Traditional silicon PV panels are very mature technology; they're not becomming cheaper to produce or more efficient.

Cheaper panels require technological breakthroughs and if you want to hurry them along you shouldn't subsidize installation of crappy panels, you should spend money on research.

[soylentgreenb]

"But what?! Your response to the peaker plant, I don't understand your logic at all."

Peaker plants are used sparingly; only when they're absolutely necessary. Much of the power produced by a solar cell will necessarily end up replacing baseload because there is no peaker plants to replace.

If you pretend that all electricity that is produced by a solar cell replaces peaker plants you're massively overinflating the value of solar PV.

[rjamesgoebel]

GREAT closing comment ! I now understand your overall argument. Very nicely done and I enjoyed it.

[rjamesgoebel]

Sorry, didnt read a little further.

But what?! Your response to the peaker plant, I don't understand your logic at all. Are you saying that because the PV array is on grid or providing power all the time, that it cannot be compared to that of a peaker plant? That really does not make much sense. If PV is a better option at peak times compared to other (used) peak options, then why not use it. Your response to that criticism was a bit off I think.

[rjamesgoebel]

This guy knows a lot more than me. But at 37minutes, there's hint of just the costs of the technology now. When it comes to the technology's efficiency (for panels), they ARE affected by the market's scale. There's no reason to think that they aren't, and there is some real research going on in that arena. You don't even mention that!!!!!!

[rjamesgoebel]

Putting PV as distributed resources were transmission is constrained makes sense, but mention that it is competing with other generation options there too. We design traditional diesel gensets for distributed generation and based on what you've presented, I doubt that PV would be a better option.