Economy of a Solar-Electric Power Plant

I co-posted this over at theWatt.com.

Portugal is breaking ground on the worlds single largest photovoltaic (solar cell) electricity power plant. The plant, situated in Serpa, will cost €58 million to construct. It will have a peak power rating of 11 megawatts spread out over 60 hectares.

Portugal gets quite a lot of sun − not as much as Murcia or Sicily, but still a lot. According to RETScreen's database Evora (the closest inland location to Serpa in the database) gets 2.82 MWh/m² per annum with the use of a two-axis tracking system. I did a quick calculation with RETScreen and came up with a 25.8 % capacity factor. That correlates to a annual power production of 25000 MWh. If amortized over 25 years, the facility will produce power for a rate of €0.093/kWh plus maintenance costs.

Paying 10 cents a kWh for a clean source of power seems like a good deal to me, and this is with global prices for photovoltaic modules drifting up to $5.50 / W_p.