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