Woolard: Solar towers had half the cost of silicon PV in 2005
John Woolard · Why concentrated solar couldn’t compete · Nov 13, 2024 · at 6:30
Former BrightSource Energy CEO John Woolard discusses the early economic advantages of concentrated solar power towers over silicon photovoltaics with Lara Pierpoint.
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“So silicon PV was around nine dollars a watt, and the tower technology we had was around six dollars a watt, dropping to five dollars a lot. So it was more or less half the price, And it could produce, if you put it in the right site, it could produce at around a 30% capacity factor versus more like a 23, 24% capacity factor. So lower capex cost and higher production gave you about a half of the LCOE, if you want to use that term. So about half the cost of delivered energy in the 2005, 2006 time frame.”
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