Solar power moves a step closer to parity

subscribe

Fresco Solar has announced that it will construct solar photovoltaic ground arrays of one megawatt or more in size anywhere in the United States for $2.95 per watt.

This new breakthrough pricing, when coupled with federal tax credits and other local initiatives such as the California Solar Initiative, brings solar photovoltaic power within the realm of grid parity.

Fresco Solar is an engineering, procurement and construction company based in Morgan Hill, California. The company's CEO, Sean Kenny, states that "the price of polysilicon has been falling for well over a year and yet new capacity continues to come on stream. The same is true for inverters and all the commodities used in balance of plant components, such as copper, steel and aluminum. This, coupled with our proprietary designs, allows us to offer never before seen prices for turnkey solar plants."

The company made an announcement in advance of Intersolar North America trade show at the Moscone West Center in San Francisco from July 14 to July 16.

"We're seeing a major shift from residential and commercial projects to municipal and utility scale ones, caused on the one hand by the anemic state of the U.S. economy and on the other by the flow of stimulus funding," says Kenny. "We and our partners have been working hard to position ourselves to take advantage of the new market conditions."

Kenny was previously an executive at Apple, whose responsibilities included the procurement of memory chips and other silicon. He is also a General Electric factory trained power station start-up engineer and has held many executive roles in Silicon Valley high-tech companies.

The price of $2.95 per watt, or $2,950,000 for a one megawatt array is based on the DC STC size of the system. It excludes sales and use taxes, local permits and fees and any land development costs. It includes delivery, installation and testing of the racking, photovoltaic panels and inverters and associated foundations and wiring.

Related News

OSART meeting Bucharest

Romania enhances safety at Cernavoda, IAEA reports

BUCHAREST - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said yesterday that the operator of Romania’s Cernavoda nuclear power plant had demonstrated "strengthened operational safety" by addressing the findings of an initial IAEA review in 2016. The Operational Safety Review Team (OSART) concluded a five-day follow-up mission on 8 March to the Cernavoda plant, which is on the Danube-Black Sea Canal, about 160 km from Bucharest.

The plant's two 706 MWe CANDU pressurised heavy water reactors came online in 1996 and 2007, respectively.

The OSART team was led by Fuming Jiang, a senior nuclear safety officer at the IAEA.

"We saw improvements in key…

READ MORE
Site C Dam

OPINION | Bridging the electricity gap between Alberta and B.C. makes perfect climate sense

READ MORE

germany prices

Electricity prices in Germany nearly doubled in a year

READ MORE

houston

In a record year for clean energy purchases, Southeast cities stand out

READ MORE

downed trees and power lines

Hurricane Michael by the numbers: 32 dead, 1.6 million homes, businesses without power

READ MORE