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Alas the economic evaluation is more complicated than that. Grid solar requires transmission lines. The largest transmission line in construction right now fo
by ghouse 4y ago
Alas the economic evaluation is more complicated than that. Grid solar requires transmission lines. The largest transmission line in construction right now for California load is called the Ten West Link. It will be 125 miles, have a maximum capacity of 3,200 MW, and cost $390 MM. [0]
[0] http://www.caiso.com/Documents/Feb12-2021-OpeningBrief-DCRT-TenWestLinkProject-CertificatePublicConvenienceNecessity-A1610012.pdf http://www.caiso.com/Documents/Feb12-2021-OpeningBrief-DCRT-...
- 7e 4y agoThat's $0.12/watt, which is nothing when amortized over dozens of years. Residential solar in California is roughly $2.75/watt installed and a recent utility scale solar project in Nevada looks to be coming in at $0.70/watt. Even with transmission, utility scale solar is 3x cheaper.
- ghouse 4y agoAll of these costs need to be adjusted for capacity factor. The 3.2 GW is the maximum rating of the line. The line will almost never be at the maximum rating (due to security-constrained economic dispatch). And obviously solar only generates when the sun is up (a mid-30s capacity factor is very good).