By James Osborne
Solar projects around the globe are performing better than expected and generating more electricity than initial estimates, the ratings agency Fitch said in a report.
Examining at electricity production from solar projects across Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and North and South America since 2010, Fitch analysts found they met or exceeded their early estimates 70 percent of the time. In contrast, Fitch found that about 75 percent of wind projects had failed to meet early projections for electricity generation.
“The track record of solar projects is shorter, but they clearly have lower operational risk, better generation performance and lower volatility than wind projects,” Fitch said. (Fitch is majority-owned by the Hearst Corp., the parent company of the Houston Chronicle.)
While wind dominates renewable energy, solar power is growing rapidly. A recent study by the International Energy Agency found that the amount of solar energy installed on the world’s power grids increased 50 percent in 2016, according to a report by the International Energy Agency.
Between 70 and 75 gigawatts worth of solar panels came online, with close to half those installations coming in China, where solar capacity more than doubled last year.
Driving the surge is a steady decline on solar technology costs in recent years. Last year, Dubai’s electric utility reported receiving bids on a segment of its 5,000-megawatt desert solar farm of less than 3 cents per kilowatt-hour. U.S. retail electricity customers pay an average of about 12 cents per kilowatt-hour.
The solar boom comes as part of a larger shift toward renewable energy, costs fall and governments push low-carbon forms of energy in a global effort to slow the effects of climate change. james.osborne@chron.com twitter.com/osborneja