Where is solar going? Sempra Generation, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy in San Diego, took the wraps off a 10-megawatt solar farm in Nevada as a Holiday package on December 22, 2008.
That’s small by industry standards, enough to light just 6,400 homes. But the ramifications are potentially huge. A veteran industry analyst has calculated that the facility can produce power at a cost of 7.5 cents a kilowatt-hour, less than the 9-cent benchmark for conventional electricity.
If that’s so, it marks a milestone that renewable fans have longed for: “grid parity,” in which electricity from the sun, wind or other green sources can meet or beat the price performance of such carbon-based fuels as coal and natural gas.
Norris Lozano
