Solar power as cheap as 'regular' power by 2013

Solar electricity could be as cheap as conventional electricity in the UK by 2013, according to a new report from Solarcentury.

The analysis shows that solar roofs on British homes will be generating electricity as cheap as conventional electricity ( a situation known as “grid parity”) by 2013, with solar electricity becoming progressively cheaper each year thereafter. Solarcentury based its findings on figures from a recent study for the Department of Business by independent consultants, as well as from supply partner price data and field-tested performance data from its own installations around the UK.

“Even with conservative assumptions about electricity price inflation in the next few years, the solar industry has the potential to beat conventional electricity on domestic roofs within the term of the next government,” said Derry Newman, Solarcentury CEO and former Managing Director of Sony UK. “If the current government allocates some of its green new deal stimulus-funding to accelerating solar into the mass market, we will be able to generate a jobs-rich new industry much faster than many people believe possible.”

The German experience has shown that tens of thousands of solar energy-related jobs can be created within just a few years, according to Solarcentury. It’s found that every megawatt of solar photovoltaic capacity creates seven to 11 jobs, compared to fewer than three for every megawatt of wind power and one to every megawatt of coal- and gas-fired generation.

“The feed-in tariff that the government has said it will bring in from April 2010 is vital,” said Jeremy Leggett, Solarcentury’s executive chairman. “A burst of premium-pricing for solar energy, of the kind now on offer in 18 European countries, will stimulate a very fast-growing market, and if the green new deal involves explosive growth of energy-efficiency markets in parallel — as it must — people will be amazed at how much of the government’s UK renewable-electricity target solar (we’ll) be able to meet by 2020. The feed-in tariff will be ramped down over a few years. This is not like nuclear, where the market has to be underwritten with public money essentially for ever.”