However the government does not include the benefit to consumers of the lower wholesale power prices, but only the direct cost of the support, which is added onto energy bills – even though the actual cost to consumers is 58% less than it appears thanks to the lower energy prices.
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Juliet Davenport, chief executive at Good Energy, said the study put bill payers “at the centre of the debate”.
With the NDA government bullish on increasing the share of power generation through non-conventional resources, the focus of the National Energy Policy, which is likely to be prepared by December this year, is on ways to hike renewable energy transmission over the next five years.
The study, ‘2030 Energy Scenario Report’ was compiled following the study of hourly weather data for over 11 years, amid beliefs that switching exclusively to a renewable power system, would result in unreliable electricity supply.
Good Energy’s report shows that wind and solar brought down the wholesale cost of electricity by £1.55 billion in 2014. Let’s give them the full picture and not just half of it.
The Solar Trade Association, based on this move by the government, has warned that the move could cost up to 27,000 jobs and waste public money already being spent on supporting the technology.
The report also claimed that if existing savings were maintained, future deployment of the technologies could actually deliver net cost benefits to consumers, defying the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s reasonings behind recent and planned cuts to renewables support. And, in developed nations, renewables account for almost all of the new additions to power capacity.
However one of the reasons for the decline is precisely… the surge in renewable power generation. Currently, Odisha had an installed solar power capacity of 64 Mw, Baral said. The latest figures show that, in the second quarter of 2015, 25.3% of electricity was generated by wind, solar, hydro and other renewables.
The report details promotional measures in different countries both for the overall renewable energy industry and for specific renewable energy technologies namely solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and bioenergy.
Given that investing is hardly, if ever, driven by altruistic motives, this transition is a clear indication of the fact that renewables, in general, and solar, in particular, can now stand shoulder-to-shoulder with conventional power generation sources, technically and economically.
This appetite for investment has, in turn, had a catalytic impact on the solar industry: sustainable growth translates into efficiencies that continue to help drive down costs and improve energy output, making solar PV an ever more attractive investment. How’s that for a bargain?
STA chief executive Paul Barwell said: “Solar is the future and this is recognised the world over”.
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“The £100m we need added to consumer bills over three years will be completely offset by the savings from solar lowering the wholesale price”.
