Army’s largest solar array dedicated in New Mexico | KOB.com The article says $16.8 million for an array that collects 10 million kwh a year. I'm not really sure about details since the military is paying Siemens, but using the numbers as given, assuming 25 years of current yield without repair, no maintenance, and inflation of utility electricity about matching a loan interest rate, I come up with: 16.8*10^6 dollars / 250 * 10^6 kwh = 6.72 cents a kwh. I have my fingers crossed. If the real number is anywhere close then PV is going to replace fossil fuels fast.
Would it be correct to say that PV efficiency is still increasing, while wind-energy conversion efficiency has about plateaued? I think this is important for the timing of future energy projects.
Bigger blades, higher altitude. I don't really know where they will stop. I gather a typical wind farm these days collects about 3 kwh/watt*year. PV has a long way to go to catch up.
"Construction took 8 months". That's a real quick ROI, if not a real large ROI. For a utility plant of any technology, that's virtually overnight. Once the total economic cost (just not the Cent/kWh) crosses the threshold, these can go up nearly as fast as panels can be made.
In the net, PV efficiency (watts per Sq meter) has not really increased much in the last while. What has changes is the price of PV moduals has fallen like a stone. I can now by PV for well under $1/watt today, about 1/5 the price ten years ago. (and that is retail!) Given that, it really doesn't matter so much about efficincy, but net kwh cost of the power output. Don't know much about the net efficincy of wind. Icarus.
