SmartPower & SmartHomes

Friday, February 5, 2010

INTRODUCTION
There's a need for a responsible grassroots organization that can jointly serve with other public and private sector entities as an effective vehicle to promote the use of renewable energy, specifically solar power systems, in residential and commercial applications throughout the Bahamas. The need for a socially conscious group with a reasonably expedited action plan that includes components for promotion, education, training, retraining, job creation and the affordable implementation of solar technologies into the mainstream is the basis for the creation of the Bahamas Solar Power Association. (BSPA)

Who are the members of the BSPA? The BSPA is made up of concerned citizens, business owners, homeowners, solar power vendors, local and international non-government organizations and vocational entities.

BSPA MISSION: To inspire, educate, inform and promote internationally accepted solar power technologies applicable to the Bahamas and to expedite the acceptance and integration of solar power technology into the mainstream economy, thereby promoting the use of renewable energy, creating training, retraining and new job opportunities for men and women throughout the Bahamas.

Short Term Objective: Begin a series of Monthly informal meetings starting September 2009 to organize, promote and seek public and private support and endorsement of BSPA. Organize and promote an ongoing series of "Energy Expositions" , with the first being scheduled on or before Jan 3, 2010 that will be held on New Providence. Subsequent meetings will be held on Grand Bahama, Andros, Exuma, Abaco and other targeted family islands. Expand the Membership and provide financial incentives up to 25% discounts on Solar PV and equipment to all members to promote and expedite the implementation of Renewable Energy and Grid-Tied installations.

BSPA Solar Power Exposition: A public event that features displays, demonstrations and presentations of internationally approved solar power equipment currently available for sale and installation in the Bahamas by Bahamian businesses.

Free Membership: To join the Bahamas solar Power Association, we simply ask that you register online or at one of the Monthly Strategy Meetings and plug into our ongoing efforts to promote the Mission of the BSPA, our current short term objectives and the BSPA Solar Power Expositions.

Advisory Team: The advisory team informs us of the concerns and needs of the residents of the Family Islands and gives the BSPA input on our planned events in the local community. We are encouraging representatives from each of the Family Islands to serve on the advisory team, so that events, training, education, promotions and expositions are reflective of the needs of the communities we serve.

Structure: The Bahamas Solar Power Association will be organized as a Non-Profit , Non-Government Organization according to the Laws of The Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The BSPA will seek to integrate with other local and international NGO's to promote and achieve the Mission and Objectives of the BSPA.

Solar kWh Costs - News Archive

Having recently seen single module PV prices dropping to a low of $0.60/Watt, it's no surprise to also see associated solar electric kWh costs plummet.

Searching through online archives we find a related article posted February 12, 2014 on www.Energy.Gov, by Erin R. Pierce, "The U.S. solar industry is growing at a record-breaking pace, while becoming more affordable and accessible than ever before. The industry’s forward progress comes in part thanks to support from the Energy Department’s SunShot Initiative.

Set up in 2011 to re-establish U.S. leadership in the solar marketplace, SunShot partners with industry, universities, local communities and the Department’s National Laboratories to aggressively drive down the cost of solar-powered electricity generation across America.

To achieve this goal, SunShot works to lower the price of solar electricity to $0.06 per kilowatt hour (KWh) -- a cost target that will make solar-generated power to be fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources by the end of the decade."

Fast forward to 2015 and we read of a recent study by the Berlin-based Agora Energiewende, a leading German think tank. The lead author, and renewable energy specialist Daniel Fuerstenwerth says that one of the reasons for the study was the lack of recognition among policy makers and advisors about future cost falls in solar PV, and official forecasts which continued to downplay the potential role of the technology.

He goes on to say that "the cost reduction potential of large scale solar is still misunderstood, and predicts that solar PV will be the cheapest form of power within a decade, and cost less than $US0.02/kWh by 2050."

Originally published in RenewEconomy, we further read from the Angora report that “Our results indicate that solar power will become the cheapest source of electricity in many regions of the world, reaching costs of between Euro 1.6 and 3.7c/kWh in India and the Mena region (Middle East and North Africa) by 2050.

Cost competitiveness, we're told, with large scale conventional power plants will be reached in these regions already within the next decade, at a cost for solar power by 2025 ranging between 3.3 and 5.4 ct/kWh.

The article places emphasis on the fact that, "in UAE for instance, solar is already cost competitive, with a tender for 200MW of solar going at less than $US0.06/kWh, less than the prevailing cost of gas-fired generation at $US0.09/kwh."