HOW LOW WILL SOLAR GO?

Austin City council ups solar procurement to 450MW

John Parnell, 16 October 2015 PV Tech

“The council of Austin, Texas voted to up its solar procurement plans to 450MW…[by the end of 2019 and its utility, Austin Energy,] is eyeing post-investment tax credit (ITC) savings by owning its solar assets itself…Documents from the meeting put the annual cost of procuring up to 650MW at US$44 million valuing the 25-year power purchase agreements at US$1.1 billion. Up to 450MW has been costed at US$17 million a year and US$425 million in total...Concerns over the impact on energy bills resulted in a 1% increase cap on consumer bills…A presentation by Austin Energy also dismissed the impact of the ITC's step-down from 30 to 10% at the end of 2016…The company said it had been offered power from post-ITC cut projects for less than 2% more than the cost of pre-2016 projects…[which plant ownership would offset] with lower build costs.” click here for more

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