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All articles of topic Costs

The cost curve for photovoltaics and other renewables continues its steady downward trend, despite minor fluctuations.

IRENA: Vast majority of new renewable projects now cheaper than fossil fuels

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A new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) finds 91 percent of new renewables in 2023 were cheaper than fossil fuel power, but warns of mounting financing and integration barriers, particularly in emerging markets.

Italy is a pioneer in Agri-PV, says Carsten Bovenschen, CEO of Juwi.

Agri-PV: “Dual use with animal husbandry has great potential”

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Agrivoltaics combines solar power and agriculture, offering genuinely niche opportunities. Nevertheless, it won't replace traditional solar parks, says Carsten Bovenschen, CEO of Juwi.

The combination of orchard and photovoltaic systems is considered particularly interesting. But the highly elevated plants are struggling with material price increases, plus costly building permits, at least in Germany.
Agriculture

Agri-PV: Still several hurdles to overcome

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Agrivoltaics is considered to have a promising future. However, the example of Germany shows that the building law slows down many projects and the projects have to struggle with material price increases.

Triple deck trailers in front of Segen's distribution warehouse in Medway, Kent (UK).

Segen UK: Triple deck trailer for CO2- and cost efficient transport of PV modules

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SW Group has delivered into service four innovative triple deck 15m trailers for renewables distributor, Segen UK. The deal, which represents a £250,000 investment by SW Group, aims to improve cost efficiencies and contribute to a reduction in CO2 emissions of the transport of PV modules.

Our guest author, Laura Laringe, CEO of Reli Energy, is giving insights how to optimize energy storage systems.
Energy storage

Optimizing energy storage - cost functions and strategies for long-term gains

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Energy storage systems are vital to the transition toward renewable energy, balancing fluctuations in supply and demand and supporting grid stability. However, maximizing the performance of these systems requires careful management of both operational efficiency and system longevity, as Laura Laringe, CEO of Reli Energy explains.

The Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of PV and other renewables declined further in 2023.
IRENA report

PV 56 % cheaper than fossil fuels or nuclear

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81% of renewable additions in 2023 were cheaper than fossil fuel alternatives, offering countries a compelling business and investment case to triple renewables by 2030, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Longi has invested a lot in its digital transformation of production.
Manufacturing

Longi: Global Lighthouse Factory

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Longi announced that its Jiaxing Production Base has been recognized by the World Economic Forum (WEF) as a Global Lighthouse Factory, the world’s first solar module manufacturing base joining WEF's Global Lighthouse Network (GLN). 

PV combined with heat pumps can save lots of money on household energy bills, a new report of SolarPower Europe reveals.
SolarPower Europe

PV with heatpumps saves up to 84 % on energy bills

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A new report of SolarPower Europe shows that solar PV and heat pump combos saved Europeans up to 84% on household energy bills in 2022.

Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar, and guest author of pv Europe.
Supply chain

Solar panel prices: quiet before the storm

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Transport costs, polysilicon and solar panel prices dropped sharply the last weeks. But it will not stay like this, Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar, says.

Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar.
Solar modules

Container prices at lowest level in a year and a half

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The downward trend in container prices has continued in the past period, so that prices are now back at the level of January 2021. A decrease of 63 percent in one year. If you commit large contracts for a longer period of time, you can end up even lower, says Gerard Scheper, CEO of European Solar: "Then you can set the prices at 3,000 to 3,500 dollars."

Coal power plant in Germany.
Global energy transition

Ammonia-coal co-firing strategy costly approach to decarbonization

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Japanese utilities are exploring retrofitting their existing coal power plants to enable co-firing of coal with ammonia to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. This is unlikely to become an economically viable path to reduce power sector emissions, a report of BloombergNEF (BNEF)states.

Global leveiized cost of electricity benchmarks.
BloombergNEF

Cost of new build renewables temporarily rises

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Supply-chain woes push up cost of new-build solar, battery storage and onshore wind, which rises between 4% and 14% from year ago according to BloombergNEF (BNEF).

Herbert Muders has been managing director of Trianel Energieprojekte in Aachen/Germany since 2018. Before he worked for Juwi.
Germany/Trianel:

"We can't solve bottlenecks overnight“

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Herbert Muders, Managing Director of Trianel Energieprojekte, on municipal participation, long approval times and land availability, as well as supply bottlenecks and cost increases.

Philippa Orr, a rural property adviser specialising in energy at Galbraith.
Europe:

Scotland becoming a solar energy hot spot

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Rural Scotland is becoming a solar energy hot spot where increasingly, landowners are approached by developers looking for land to generate energy from the sun, says Philippa Orr from property consultancy Galbraith.

In 2021, 19 GW of renewable energy projects were announced outside of subsidy systems, according to a Enervis study.
Study:

Market parity of PV and wind reached in almost all of Europe in 2021

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In 2021, market values for PV and onshore wind reached record levels in European markets, primarily due to sharp increases in natural gas and CO2 allowance prices. As a result, market parity was reached in almost all European markets.

AC-1 storage system with electronic module and three battery modules (7.2 kilowatt hours).
SolarPower Europe:

Residential battery storage: Over 400% growth by 2025

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Europe’s residential battery storage will grow over 400% to 12.8 GWh by 2025, according to the new 5-year SolarPower Europe Market Outlook.

Recently Meyer-Burger ramped up a new production line for high-efficient solar modules in Freiberg/Germany.
PV Manufacturing:

Return of „made in Europe“

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Driven by the strong supply dependencies that have become apparent as a result of the Corona pandemic and by political tailwinds, there are first concrete steps for a return of PV manufacturing to Europe.

The new report  finds that it will cost an annual 10–24 billion euros until the end of this decade to support the use of renewable hydrogen in line with the EU targets.
Agora Energiewende:

Make renewable hydrogen cost-competitive

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The expansion of renewable hydrogen in the EU calls for policy support in the order of 10–24 billion euros a year until the end of this decade. A new study outlines which policy instruments are essential for renewable hydrogen’s successful market uptake – and its economic competitiveness.

Utility-scale solar is the cheapest power source in major countries like China, India and Germany.
Cost reduction:

New-build solar often cheaper than existing coal plants

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Building and operating new utility-scale solar PV is cheaper than running existing coal and gas-fired plants in China, India and across most of Europe according to BloombergNEF.

LCOE of renewable energy technologies and conventional power plants at locations in Germany in 2021. Specific plant costs are considered using a minimum and a maximum value for each technology. The ratio for hybrid PV-battery systems gives the PV power in kWp versus the useful battery capacity in kWh. The assumptions on irradiation and the development of the full load hours can be found in the study on page 14 ff.
Levelized cost of electricity:

Renwables beat conventional power plants clearly

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Due to the intensified actions taken to protect the climate, the operating costs of conventional power plants are rising. At the same time, the levelized costs of electricity, particularly for photovoltaic plants, have continued to fall.

The costs of green hydrogen will fall more than predicted due to cheap solar PV, BNEF says.
Energy transition:

Cheap solar cuts costs of green hydrogen

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The levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH2) made from renewable electricity is set to fall faster than estimated, driven declining solar PV electricity costs according to BloombergNEF.

Replacing lignite power plants in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic with renewable sources by 2032 does not increase the costs of power generation in the region.

Replacing lignite plants with renewables cost-effective

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A coordinated phase out from lignite in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic favours power consumers and climate, according to a new study.

Cleve Hill Solar Park (animation image) on the north coast of Kent consists of 880,000 solar modules and will contribute to the f2 billion euro low carbon power sector.

PV cheapest power generating technology in UK

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New Government figures indicate that large-scale solar will be lowest cost deploy and maintain over the next two decades.

The report was published in collaboration between the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Frankfurt School-UNEP Collaborating Centre and BloombergNEF (BNEF).

Costs of PV plants declined by 83% within a decade

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As COVID-19 hits the fossil fuel industry, a new report shows that renewable energy is more cost-effective than ever – providing an opportunity to prioritize clean energy in economic recovery packages and bring the world closer to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Direct carbon pricing through a tax is more effective for climate protections than the indirect form of emissions trading, renowned scientists argue.

A plea for direct C02 pricing

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Setting a price on CO2 works better than limiting the amount of emissions, renowned scientists say.