https://www.biznews.com/undictated/2016/04/20/indian-example-shows-solar-power-cheaper-than-coal-and-half-the-price-of-nuclear/
April 20, 2016
Indian example shows solar power cheaper than coal – and half the price
of nuclear
It will be two years next month since India ended a six decade obsession
with socialism and elected the reformist Narendra Modi Government.
Already its market-driven policies are delivering dividends beyond a new
baseline economic growth rate of 7.5%.
Modi’s Energy Minister Piyush Goyal is all over the media this week
claiming Indian solar power is now cheaper than coal. He points to the
sustained drop in solar costs punctuated by a recent auction of 420MW in
the northern state of Rajasthan (population 73m) where solar hit a
record low of 4.34 Rupees per MW (ZAR 94c)
. Coal costs between three and five Rupees.
Even more interesting for South Africans is the way solar is killing
nuclear. An 84 page analysis by Deutsche Bank India puts the price of
installed nuclear power a few cents higher than the new solar price.
Nuclear’s capital cost per MW, however, is now double that of solar.
Not surprisingly, India is betting big on solar power, with a massive
ramp up from the current 6 750 MW to 100 000 MW in the next five years,
supported by a further 40% fall in capital costs. In the light of such
overwhelming evidence (and the uranium-invested Guptas having left for
Dubai) we expect an announcement soon officially abandoning SA’s crazy
idea of a $100bn nuclear programme.
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http://reneweconomy.com.au/2016/india-energy-minister-says-solar-power-now-cheaper-coal-29756
India energy minister says solar power now cheaper than coal
By Giles Parkinson on 21 January 2016
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The latest auction of solar energy capacity in India has achieved a new
record low price of 4.34 rupees/kWh, prompting the country’s energy
minister Piyush Goyal to say that solar tariffs are now cheaper than
coal-fired generation.
The results of a reverse auction tender of 420MW of solar capacity
conducted by the Rajasthan government revealed this week that Finnish
group Fortum Energy bid the lowest price of 4.34 rupees/kWh for a 70MW
solar PV plant.
It is the lowest price obtained so far in India, which aims to install
more than 100GW of solar by 2022, and was hailed by Goyal as a sign that
solar power is now cheaper than coal power.
“Through transparent auctions with a ready provision of land,
transmission and the like, solar tariffs have come down below thermal
power cost,” Goyal said in a tweet.
In a later tweet, Goyal said: “We are moving rapidly towards realising
the clean energy vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.”
In a week in which it was revealed that China’s coal consumption for
electricity had slumped 3.5 per cent last year, it is a further bad sign
for Australia’s coal exporters.
The Fortum bid betters the previous low of 4.63 rupees/kWh made by the
US-based SunEdison, the world’s biggest developer of renewable energy
power plants, for a 500MW plant in Andra Pradesh last November.
Like many such auction results, the Sun-Edison bid was dismissed as
irrational. But it was matched a month later in a different auction in
December by SkyPower.
Fortum’s offer was also no outlier. The bid was nearly matched by Rising
Sun Energy (which bid 4.35 rupees for two blocks), France’s
Solairedirect (also two blocks for 4.35 rupees a unit) and Yarrow
Infrastructure ( a 70MW plant for 4.36 rupees).
“This (Rs 4.34 a unit) is the lowest solar tariff so far in India. This
has happened because of confidence in the balance sheet of NTPC and
solar parks that come with all clearances and confidence in the market,”
new and renewable energy joint secretary Tarun Kapoor said.
The bids are also not subject to price indexation. Tim Buckley, from the
Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) wrote last
month that this means a potential 5 per cent annual real price decline
is contractually in place for the next 25 years, a significant long tail
advantage of renewable energy.
Fossil fuels by comparison offer prohibitive price variability and
currency devaluation risks.
“India currently has over 4.4GW of installed utility solar capacity, and
solar consultancy Bridge to India estimates another 16GW of tenders have
been allocated or are in the process of tendering, much which we expect
to be operational by 2017 at the latest. Rooftop solar is also on a
steep upward trajectory in 2016,” Buckley wrote.
“After only 1GW of solar installs in each of 2013/14 and 2014/15, IEEFA
estimates 2015/16 installs will more than double to 2.5GW, double again
in 2016/17 to 5-6GW and then 9GW by 2017/18. By 2021/22, we forecast
cumulative installs of solar to exceed 80GW – close to the Indian
Government’s target of 100GW set one year ago.”
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