As pointed out in previous blogs, the power purchase agreement (PPA) for wind in 2013 and 2014 were close to 2.5 cents per kWh for 20 years.  Can buyers get cheaper electricity for such long term?  Wind farm owners do get another 2.3 cents for 10 years in the form of production tax credits (PTC) from the federal government.

Now lets consider solar, for details see this article:

Austin Energy signed agreement to buy solar for less than 4 cents per kWh.  Other deals have been signed for lower price.

A similar trend is occuring outside the US, in June 2015 UAE signed an agreement to buy 200 MWp of solar power for 5.84 US cents per kWh.

So, forget regulations and government mandates, economics is driving growth in wind and solar.  As mentioned in a blog before, in 2015 wind, gas and solar were the top three sources of new generation (total of 96%), and coal and oil came in at less than 1%.

In 2015, wind provided 47% of new generation capacity.  Gas came in at 35%, followed by solar at 14%, while coal, oil and geothermal accounted for less than 1%.  Total new generation capacity was 14,468 MW.  For more information, see https://www.snl.com/InteractiveX/Article.aspx?cdid=A-34950800-13103. 

All this is happening despite loud skepticism about climate change and clean energy.  This is pure economics, the cost of wind and solar generations have dropped below the cost of new coal generation.

See the details in these charts from SNL Energy.

This is the seasonal variability of wind farm capacity factors by region in the US.

Source: http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/plugged-in/wind-patterns-and-electri...

Currently the global GHG emissions are about 50 giga tons of CO2 equivalent (GtCO2eq).  

With business as usual scenario, this will rise to 110 GtCO2eq by 2050.

With the pledges made at COP21 in December 2015 in Paris, the emissions will stay flat at around 50 GtCO2eq until 2050 and then start declining after 2050.

Source: http://www.irena.org/rethinking/IRENA%20_REthinking_Energy_2nd_report_2015.pdf 

Suzlon is using a hybrid tower for its 2.1 MW wind turbine.  Its base is a lattice tower and above it sits the normal cylindrical (or conical) tower, for a total height of 120m.  See http://www.suzlon.com/images/Enerasia.png.  I have not found the exact dimensions of the lattice tower, but it looks to be about 40m in height.

At a high level, this is an inexpensive way to increase hub height and gain higher production.  The claim I have seen here is that there is a 4 to 5% increase in wind speed, which amounts to 12 to 15% increase in annual energy production (AEP).  Even if this claim is exaggerated, an increase of 10% AEP is a big deal with a modest amount of investment.

Update: Shooting for 170m hub height.   For more details see "Wind Turbine Towers Poised To Reach ‘Mega’ Heights."

The Energy [R]evolution 2015 report has outlined scenarios in which RE can become 100% of all electricity generation.  This report was published by Greenpeace International and Global Wind Energy Council.  In this scenario, wind would be the largest source of electricity globally, contributing 32%.  In 15 years, RE would go from 21% to 64% of electricity supply.  According to the report, the 100% scenario would save money and create millions of new jobs.

The World Wind Energy Association reported that in the first half of 2015, 21.7 GW of wind power was installed bringing the total worldwide capacity to 392.927 GW.  This is 5.8% growth in installed capacity.  

China led with 10.1 GW followed by 2 GW in US, 2 GW in Germany and 1.3 GW in India.  Brazil had the highest growth rate of 14% (838 MW).

Saw an interesting article on power specifications of electric vehicles.  For details see, http://www.windpowerengineering.com/featured/more-great-uses-for-wind-ge...

1. BYD bus (from China) 40ft, 25 seater.  Two 90kW motors.  Battery capacity 324 kWh or 600 Ah, Iron phosphate batteries.  Range 150mi, top speed 43 mph
2. BYD bus (from China) 60ft, 60 seater.  Two 180kW motors.  Battery capacity 547.5 kWh or 750 Ah, Iron phosphate batteries.  Range 170mi, top speed 60 mph
3. Electric scooter, 59kg.  250W battery, 48V, 12 Ah.  Range 50Km at 25 Km/hr

Additions:

1. Chevy Volt.  18.4 kWh, Li-ion battery with 53 mi range with battery alone.  It also has 63 kW (84 hp) 1398 cc gasoline engine.  The total range is 420 miles.
2. Tesla Model S.  Two models 60 kWh and 85 kWh.  It uses Li-ion 18650 commodity cells (usually found in laptops).  Panasonic is the supplier.  60kWh model has distance range of 208 miles and 85 kWh is 265 miles.

New method of financing wind and solar power plants is upon us.  SunEdison (and it YieldCo company Terraform Power) have catapaulted from a strong position in solar power plants to a dominant position in wind power plants in less than a year.  SunEdison along with Nextera, NRG Energy and others have brought Wall Street money to renewable energy.  

What does it all mean?  It means yield seeking investor like you and me, mutual funds, pension funds and others are investing in renewable energy projects and enjoying yields that result from sale of electricity produced from these plants.  These plants have long-term power purchase agreements, so the uncertainty in revenue is small and a reasonable yield is available for minimal risk.  

What does it mean when renewable energy power plants become such liquid assets?   It means that owners of renewable energy projects can deleverage by taking these renewable energy assets off their books and raise cash for reinvesting in more renewable energy projects.

SunEdison (Terraform Power) has adopted this approach.  In 2015, it has bought 930MW of wind portfolio through acquisition of Invenergy, 521 MW from Atlantic Power, 500 MW from First Wind and 242 MW from Continuum Wind.  It has grown from 1.7GW at the beginning of 2015 to 6.8GW as of July 2015.   It has signed a 50-50 JV with Gamesa to build 1GW of wind plants in India by 2018.  

The big question now is, as the era of production tax credits (PTC) sunsets in the USA, can YieldCos provide a cheap source of financing to wind projects in order to reach cost grid parity with coal or gas powered power plants?  This is certainly likely.  As evidence consider in 2013, in the US, the average power purchase agreement price was 2.6 cents per kWh (LBNL Wind technology report, 2014).  Add to the PPA 2.3 cents per kWh PTC for 10 years, and you come up with the fact that new wind power plants are getting less than 5 cents per kWh.  I doubt a new coal fired power plant will take a PPA of less than 5 cents.  Lets watch how the era of YieldCos unfolds in terms of bringing down the price of wind energy.