Moore’s conjecture and renewable energy COMMENT By Orlando Roncesvalles 09/12/2011

Moore’s conjecture and renewable energy

COMMENT

By Orlando Roncesvalles 09/12/2011
Time flies and Moore’s Law applies. Because the cost of computing and other high-tech things, such as solar panels, drop by half about every 18 months, the feed-in tariff (FIT) component of the Renewable Energy Act of 2008 (RA 9513) will soon be obsolete.

Such obsolescence should be welcomed. When something called “grid parity” has arrived or is at hand, the cost of producing one’s own electricity will have fallen to levels approximating what one now pays the grid. This portends a victory of sorts for the hapless electricity consumer.

The FIT is a guaranteed price to be paid to new plants using renewable energy (RE). It is also a price that is well above the wholesale cost of producing electricity from the usual sources (generally thought to be in the P5 per kilowatthour range). The proposed FITs are P7 per kwh for biomass, P6.15 for hydro, P10.37 for wind, P17.65 for ocean waves and P17.95 for solar energy. (For comparison, the residential “all-in” price paid by many consumers is already above P10 per kwh.).... MORE

Source:  The Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110912com5.html