And the Cheapest Electricity in the U.S. Is… Solar?

[mackdaddy]

A Nevada utility and a solar developer have just struck a deal for solar electricity at a price that stands out compared not just to other solar deals, but also to just about any other option for new electricity. Here’s what it and other recent deals say about the future of solar.

Bloomberg’s story on the Nevada deal opens with this (emphasis added):
Warren Buffet’s Nevada utility has lined up what may be the cheapest electricity in the U.S., and it’s from a solar farm.“Cheapest” and “solar” aren’t words some folks might expect to see together in something coming out of a financial outfit like Bloomberg. But folks who have been paying attention to solar’s incredible recent price drops in recent years know that the times they are a-changin’.

NV Energy, part of Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway company, is buying output from a project being developed by solar photovoltaic (PV) manufacturer First Solar at a price of 3.87 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh). That’s probably a lower price than you’d get from just about any other source out there, except for wind or energy efficiency.
Best deal in town

No doubt about it: this power purchase agreement (PPA) is a deal. A utility analyst at Bloomberg says it’s “probably the cheapest PPA I’ve ever seen in the U.S.” Note the lack of qualifiers: no “solar”, no “renewable energy.” Just “cheapest.”

http://blog.ucsusa.org/cheapest-electricity-in-the-us-is-solar-power-799

[MADem]

1. YAY!!!! We're approaching that tipping point, at long last!

It has taken forever, but we're close enough to see the goal, I think....