These are strange days in the energy business. Startling headlines are emerging from the sector that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago.
The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority said in May it had received bids to develop solar power projects that would deliver electricity costing less than three cents per kilowatt hour. This established a new worldwide low for the contracted cost of delivering solar power to the grid — and is priced well below the benchmark of what the emirate and other countries typically pay for electricity from coal-fired stations.
In the UK, renowned for its miserable overcast weather, solar panels contributed more power to the grid than coal plants for the month of May.