INGENIEUR
INGENIEUR
On a purely economic basis , VRE is becoming competitive with conventional fossil fuel generation with further decreases in price coming from reduced balance of systems cost .
generation technologies ( IEA , 2014a ). At US $ 2.5 trillion , wind power attracts the largest amount of capital expenditure , followed by hydropower ( US $ 1.9 trillion ) and solar PV ( US $ 1.7 trillion ; ( IEA , 2014a ). Over the period 2014 – 2040 , average annual investment in renewables for power will amount to approximately US $ 270 billion , 75 % higher than the average investment annually over 2000-2013 under the NPS .
Variable Renewable Energy becoming competitive
On a purely economic basis , VRE is becoming competitive with conventional fossil fuel generation with further decreases in price coming from reduced balance of systems cost ( BoS ). As mentioned above , the LCOE of utilityscale solar PV has been cut in half from 2000 to 2014 ( IRENA , 2015 ). LCOE is one measure of overall competitiveness used to compare electricity generation costs across various sources . Key inputs to calculating LCOE include capital costs , fuel costs , fixed and variable operations and maintenance ( O & M ) costs , financing costs and an assumed utilisation rate for each plant type .
According to the IEA ( 2013a ), CO 2 emissions from the generation of energy during combustion accounts for approximately 60 % of global emissions . In this regard , two topics addressed at the 2014 Policy Dialogue on Energy for Sustainable Development for the Asia-Pacific region include the promotion of high efficiency , low emissions ( HELE ) coal-fired power generation and VRE power generation as part of a flexible and secure power grid that will allow for more efficient and sustainable power generation .
Variable Renewable Energy Innovations
VRE boasts quicker deployment than large hydropower projects as the latter can take years or even decades to commission . By comparison , wind projects can be sited and erected in as little as two to three years . Utility-scale PV solar projects can be constructed in less than six months , and distributed PV systems can be added to rooftops
44 VOL 67 JULY-SEPTEMBER 2016