 |
| NRG’s David Crane |
Without
the availability of federal loan guarantees, a program that ended in
September, the wave of massive solar projects is probably over,
according to David Crane, president and CEO of Princeton-based NRG Energy said Thursday during a conference call with analysts.
Crane’s remarks were published on Friday by Platts Energy Week.
Wall Street does not have the capacity to provide
debt financing for the large projects, which have price tags of more
than $1 billion, Crane said. Looking ahead, utility-scale projects will
range from 20-MW to 100-MW, he said, noting that his company will pursue
those types of projects.
development will come more from rooftop projects, according to Crane.
“The distributed, residential is going to end up swamping the bag-scale
projects,” he said.
plans to install 733 MW of solar panels over four years on warehouse
owned by ProLogis under a partnership backed by DOE and Bank of America.
A
form of Moore’s Law – the doubling every two years of the number of
transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit – applies to
photovoltaic technology, according to Crane. In the last two years, the
delivered cost of energy from PV was cut in half, he said.
NRG expects
the cost to fall in half again in the next two years, which would make
solar power less expensive than retail electricity in roughly 20 states,
he said. The expected drop in solar costs has “the potential to
revolutionize the hub and spoke power system, which currently makes up
the power industry,” he said.
the solar industry has benefited from federal support, the driver for
the industry has been state renewable portfolio standards, led by
California’s 33% mandate, according to Crane.
In
defense of solar in a “highly politicized post-Solyndra world,” Crane
said that PV puts less strain on air, water and land resources than
other forms of power generation. It is also more predictable and
reliable than wind farms, he said.
See full Platt’s story here
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