The referenced article titled, "Cheap Photovoltaics are Eating Solar Thermal's Lunch" makes clear how competitive the solar field is, and how quickly economics, and hence strategies can shift.
This is an excellent article with clear insight into the economic driving forces involved, such as "dispatchable power", i.e. power which can be rapidly put on-line when needed. Solar thermal offers this feature by storing the collected solar energy as a hot fluid, and later using the hot fluid to generate electricity as needed. However, dispatchable power is also readily available from natural gas, which is inexpensive, in good supply, and faces no current penalties, such as a carbon tax.
And why are photovoltaic prices falling so quickly? Just see this Bloomberg analysis if you really want the details.
This is an excellent article with clear insight into the economic driving forces involved, such as "dispatchable power", i.e. power which can be rapidly put on-line when needed. Solar thermal offers this feature by storing the collected solar energy as a hot fluid, and later using the hot fluid to generate electricity as needed. However, dispatchable power is also readily available from natural gas, which is inexpensive, in good supply, and faces no current penalties, such as a carbon tax.
And why are photovoltaic prices falling so quickly? Just see this Bloomberg analysis if you really want the details.
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