Arabian Business – May 06, 2018

COVER STORY

DANIEL CALDERON

arabianbusiness.com 33

“We were producing

electricity at just

12 cents per kWh. It

opened my eyes to the

opportunities that lay

ahead in this fi eld”

u Solar power panels now have an effi ciency three to four times that of 2006

It may be early days but Alcazar

Energy is one of many players in

the market eagerly watching the

rapid growth of electric vehicles.

India has already targeted

complete electrifi cation of all

vehicles by 2030, with China, the

US and Europe heading in the

same direction. Much of this is

being propelled by falling battery

costs. According to the latest

Bloomberg New Energy Finance

Report, lithium-ion batteries have

seen a 79 percent drop in costs

since 2010, “making the idea of

storing energy a possibility

in the coming years.”

The report says that cheaper

batteries would allow utilities to

store up electricity that was

generated during the day by

solar farms and use it at night.

It adds: “Adding a battery to an

existing wind or solar plant can

give it access to high-value

hours. By 2025, four-hour battery

energy storage will start to

compete with gas plants, even

in countries with cheap gas

generation like the US.”

and balancing,” said Elena

Giannakopoulou, head of energy

economics at BNEF. “But the

economic case for new coal and

gas capacity is crumbling.”

The cheapest solar and wind

costs can now be found in China

and India, which are also

among the worst

polluters. The tumbling

costs will continue until

at least until 2040 for

both renewable energy

sources worldwide and

they’ll become cheaper

than coal and gas within fi ve

years, the report showed. Coal

and gas generate more than a

third of the world’s electricity. For

now, they remain the cheapest

sources of electricity even after

the sharp drops in the cost of

wind and solar power.

Source: Bloomberg

Storage wars

Battery costs mean solar power is becoming more viable

Doing the maths

Fossil-fuel-powered stations are no longer economically sensible

u Batteries remain at the heart of the solar power challenge

The economics of generating

electricity from fossil fuels are

deteriorating rapidly as

renewable energy technology

plunges in costs. That’s the

conclusion of a Bloomberg New

Energy Finance report on the

levelised cost of energy,

a measure that takes

into account the

expenses from

buying equipment,

servicing debt and

operating power

plants using each

technology. In most places,

wind and solar will work cheaper

than coal by 2023, the research

group said.

“Some existing coal and gas

power stations, with sunk capital

costs, will continue to have a role

for many years, doing a

combination of bulk generation