German utility RWE AG (RWE.XE) said Tuesday it is considering electricity production from photovoltaic solar facilities, after a sharp drop in component prices in the past few years helped improve the economics of the nascent technology.
German utility RWE AG (RWE.XE) said Tuesday it is considering
electricity production from photovoltaic solar facilities, after a sharp drop
in component prices in the past few years helped improve the economics of the
nascent technology.
"The costs of photovoltaic solar energy have declined considerably and are
gradually moving toward those of wind power," said Hans Buenting, chief
financial officer of RWE's renewables unit RWE Innogy.
Photovoltaics--or PV--is a method of generating electrical power by converting
solar radiation into direct current electricity using semiconductors.
Prices for PV components have more than halved in the past five years, with the
drastic price erosion further accelerating since 2009, according to
Germany
's
solar energy association BSW.
Industry observers have attributed the sharp drop to increasingly tough
competition from Asian solar equipment makers that import their products to
Europe
.
"We hadn't expected the extent of the price decline," said Buenting,
adding that photovoltaic solar power could become an attractive investment for
RWE in southern
Europe
and
North
Africa
.
Buenting said that the company is considering participating in a photovoltaic
solar project that is being developed by the
Sahara
Desert
solar
power initiative Desertec.
RWE Innogy has been focusing predominantly on wind power. However, the company
also owns interest in a thermal solar power plant in southern
Spain
. Solar
thermal energy is a technology that harnesses sun radiation by bundling it with
large industrial mirrors to produce steam, which in turn drives a power
generator.
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