Costs and Revenues of Renewable Electricity Production Systems.

Abstract

The market potential of solar systems primarily depends on costs and revenues. The electricity generation costs of solar tower power plants and trough systems are discussed in comparison to other electricity generation systems. Investment costs and the site of the system influence greatly the costs. The revenue structure is strongly affected by the load curve of the supplied area. On a short and middle term view, both solar systems show specific generation costs of less than 10 c/kWh. Under good California weather conditions, revenues for the solar-only generation mode are approx. 7 c/kWh, for hybrid generation slightly more than 9 c/kWh.