The Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) in the United States recently released a snapshot of the current “booming” state of the industry in that country.
In the last decade alone, the association says, solar has experienced an average annual growth rate of 48%, thanks to strong federal policies like the solar Investment Tax Credit, rapidly declining costs, and increasing demand across the private and public sector for clean electricity.
Some selected developments exemplifying the trends:
• The average cost to install solar power capacity has dropped by more than 70% over the last decade. Prices as of Q4 2019 are at their lowest levels in history across all market segments. An average-sized residential system has dropped from a pre-incentive price of $40,000 in 2010 to roughly $18,000 today, while recent utility-scale prices range from $16/MWh – $35/MWh.
Source: https://www.seia.org/solar-industry-research-data
• In 2019, 40% of all new electric capacity added to the grid came from solar, the largest such share in history.
• As hardware costs have fallen, soft costs have increased as a share of total system costs, primarily due to increased customer acquisition costs and inconsistent building code and permitting practices across jurisdictions.
• Storage is increasingly paired with all forms of solar. By 2025, it is anticipated that more than 25% of all behind-the-meter solar systems will be paired with storage, compared to under 5% in 2019.
• Ongoing growth is expected across the country as prices continue to fall and combined solar + storage systems become increasingly viable.
• More than 30 GW of new utility-scale PV projects were announced in 2019, helping the total contracted pipeline soar to an all-time high of 48.1 GW.
• Over the next 5 years, total installed solar capacity will more than double, with cumulative deployment topping 100 GW by 2021.
Energy storage in Alberta
Emissions Reduction Alberta, a government program investing in a range of technologies that show promise in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, counts 163 projects funded to date totaling more than half a billion dollars. The program lists several directed at energy storage:
• Crossfield Energy Centre Hybrid Electric Gas Turbine Project in Crossfield, Alberta: hybridization of a natural gas turbine with battery storage.
• Cryogenic Carbon Capture with Energy Storage (CCCES).
• Drumheller Solar and Battery Storage Project (see also “other stories,” above.)
• Electric Bus On-Route Charging Deployment in Calgary.
• Enabling Increased Intermittent Green Generation via Wind Energy Storage, with 10 MW of lithium-ion batteries at TransAlta’s windfarm in southwestern Alberta.
• ENMAX Midstream Industrial Solar + Storage Project at Keyera Corporation’s Rimbey gas plant to smooth out the facility’s demand profile.
• The FortisAlberta Waterton Energy Storage Project, using batteries to address reliability issues near the end of a long electric distribution feeder in the town of Waterton.
• TransCanada Energy’s Saddlebrook Solar + Storage facility near Aldersyde, Alberta, using flow batteries.
• The Whitecourt Transmission Deferral Battery project, which involves installing a 20 MW/20 MWh Battery Energy Storage System at the existing substation in Whitecourt, AB.
Visit https://www.eralberta.ca/ for details.
Other solar+storage related stories, elsewhere in this issue:
National news
Drumheller gets 13.5 MW solar / 8 MW storage
International news
Innergex building solar+storage in Hawaii
SoCalEd signs for 770MW of battery storage
Nevada to get 690 MW solar farm
Hawaii seeks 460 MW of solar with storage