Solar power moves a step closer to parity

Fresco Solar $2.95 per watt pricing accelerates photovoltaic grid parity, enabled by falling polysilicon and inverter costs, EPC efficiencies, federal tax credits, and the California Solar Initiative for turnkey utility-scale solar and commercial projects.

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 for many buyers.

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 as breakthroughs in solar costs continue 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, as the California solar market expands across the state.

"We're seeing a major shift from residential and commercial projects to municipal and utility scale ones, including a 550 MW project in California, 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, where nuts-and-bolts cost cuts keep systems affordable, and associated foundations and wiring.

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