Evaluating the factors that led to low-priced solar electricity projects in the Middle East

Harry Apostoleris, Sgouris Sgouridis, Marco Stefancich, Matteo Chiesa

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

71 Scopus citations

Abstract

The past few years have seen the rise of large-scale, low-priced solar energy projects around the world. Oil-producing countries in the Middle East, in particularly the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, have become unexpected leaders in this movement with record-low power purchase agreement prices, below 3¢ kWh−1, for a number of new photovoltaic installations, beating the cost of fossil fuel generation. In this Analysis, we bring together technical, economic and financial information from global and local sources to study whether these prices can be replicated elsewhere and further reduced. We find that hardware costs, cost of labour, favourable cost of capital, low taxes and low, but positive, profit margins contribute to the reduction in costs. Reduced hardware prices contributed the most and also led to further reduction in cost of capital. We demonstrate how similar costs can be and have been achieved in other markets.

Original languageBritish English
Pages (from-to)1109-1114
Number of pages6
JournalNature Energy
Volume3
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2018

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Evaluating the factors that led to low-priced solar electricity projects in the Middle East'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this