The Austin city council has passed a resolution to increase the city’s rooftop and utility-scale solar targets by 800 MW in future.
The resolution contains a plan to build a utility-scale solar target of 600 megawatts by 2017 and a rooftop solar target of 200 megawatts by 2020.
A mandatory strategy to acquire 200 MW of fast-response storage has also been included.
The plan is based on climate goals created and revised since 2010. It is expected that new solar program will keep electricity prices at the 50 percent lowest among Texas utilities.
Recently, Austin Energy has signed a PPA for 150 MW of solar at 5 cents per kilowatt-hour.
The new goals are expected to place Texas in the top-ten overall rankings and the top-five utility-scale solar rankings in future. This plan strengthens Texas as an emerging leader in coming years, explained, Cory Honeyman, solar analyst, GTM Research.
The 2014 Task Force found that solar is a cost-competitive means of securing clean power and recommended that solar energy generation should be the new generation resource through 2024, stated, Chris Riley, councilman.
Nowadays, the renewables are based on operational cost data from the utility, dynamic models projecting market prices and the very low PPA rates as seen from PV in response to RFPs, commented, Chad Blevins, financial analyst, The Butler Firm.
In case, these contracts are signed at $50 per megawatt-hour consumers can save millions of dollars in a year.
Besides, the plan is a proof for wider move for utility-scale solar around the country. There are 3 GW of large-scale projects in the pipeline in states like Georgia, North Carolina, Utah, Kentucky, and soon, Mississippi.
The flow seen in solar projects without any renewable portfolio standard is due to the price competition with natural gas, the need to fill in closing coal plants, and dodging against natural-gas price instability.