Developer says solar competes on price | Charlotte Business Journal

• John Downey
• Senior staff writer
• Email: jdowney@bizjournals.com

• His project will be profitable at a price well below 18 cents per kilowatt-hour. But natural gas often costs utilities more than 30 cents per kilowatt-hour.

  Utilities are required to buy power from independent producers at their “avoided-cost” rate for plants other than hydro facilities. But that calculation includes a utility’s low-cost base-load power. He says regulators should consider setting a rate for avoided costs for solar that gives greater weight to peak pricing.

  “Utilities would save money on peak power buying solar at 20 cents a kilowatt-hour,” Olsen says. And setting solar rates in that range would encourage more local jobs, he says — particularly if the state also gave utilities incentives to use locally produced renewable power sources.