The Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority recently completed a 350 MW solar tender. They received a total of 6 bids and the low bidder was Japan’s Marubeni Corp and China’s JinkoSolar Holding Co Ltd. Their bid was USD $24.2 per MWh or 2.42 cents per KWh.
This is really low.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average cost of a new natural gas-fired plant is 5.6 cents per KWh. More than double the above solar bid.
In fact, author, blogger and futurist Ramez Naam calls the above bid, “the cheapest contract for electricity ever signed, anywhere on planet earth, using any technology.” (Blog post here.)
Huge.
Now, Abu Dhabi is obviously a very sunny locale. No shortage of bluebird days there. But that doesn’t negate the fact that we are seeing a rapid decline in solar power prices.
This, along with the growing adoption of electric vehicles is excellent news for us sustainability dorks. Just this morning I was thinking to myself that the car I currently own will likely be the last gasoline-powered car I ever own.
Hopefully they start making an electric version of the G-Class.
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