This is the sky seen through an 8 millimeter lens. The photo is part of an effort to measure actual sunlight to design better solar energy systems.Solar radiation research laboratory, NREL.
Ironically, as the ongoing wave of electric utility deregulation forces utilities to scramble for the lowest-cost power, some companies have found they can sell power at a higher economic cost if it has a low environmental cost. "More and more utilities are starting green pricing programs, which offer solar (and other renewables) to interested customers at a premium price," says Robert Gibson of Utility PhotoVoltaic Group. In other words, one kilowatt hour is suddenly different from another. And this "represents a sea change for utilities," which are used to treating kilowatt hours as all created equal.
Green pricing has been a success in Sacramento, where nearly 2,000 customers volunteered for the first 100 openings in an earlier PV Pioneers Program that gave selected customers the honor of paying an extra 15 percent on their bills. Their $4 per month premiums sponsored the installation of rooftop PV systems that were still too expensive for the market.
Bottom line
Coming back to the all-important dollar, why does SMUD, the Sacramento utility, think its 10 megawatt contract can depress prices enough to make PV competitive? Because it will create regular demand that industry can bank on, says Donald Osborn, SMUD's solar manager. "If we present them with a substantial, predictable, multi-year order of PV, if they know we'll be doing this year after year, rather than drying up existing capacity, we'll be stimulating new capacity."
Sacramento is also counting on other economic benefits, since the contractors will build factories in the area. Those factories will not just serve Sacramento, however. Energy Photovoltaics Inc., plans to sell no more than one-quarter of its new capacity to SMUD, Osborn says. The company has been planning to start the contract by building thin-film silicon cells, and then switch to copper-indium-diselenide [CIS] cells. But, he adds, "things are moving so fast on the CIS front that we may start out using that."
And when the contract is completed, and the price is below $3 per watt, "you are at the point where you begin to become competitive in retail-residential market."
Even if it's starting to seem that the solar millennium will coincide with the calendar's millennium, solar advocates are holding their breath. "Now we have one example of getting PV down to the point of market competitiveness by year 2002," says Osborn. "Now we need to see multiple examples."
What else is cool, solar-wise?
