Considering the declining trend of capital costs as discussed
above, we analyzed the levelized costs of solar energy technologies
when their capital costs drop by 5–25% from the present level.
Fig. 6 shows how the levelized cost of solar thermal trough, solar
thermal tower, photovoltaic thin-film and photovoltaic crystalline
would decline iftheir capital cost requirements were to fall by up to
25% and how those costs would compare to the maximum levelized
costs oftraditional electricity generationplants.As illustrated inthe
figure, the minimum values of levelized cost of any solar technologies,
including tower type CSP, which is currently the least costly
solar technology, would be higher than the maximum values of
levelized costs of conventional technologies for power generation
(e.g., nuclear, coal IGCC, coal supercritical, hydro, gas CC) even if
capital costs of solar energy technologies were reduced by 25%.
Since fossil fuels such as coal and gas produce negative externalities
at the local level (e.g., local air pollution) as well at the global
level (e.g., GHG emissions), whereas solar energy technologies do
not, it would be unfair to compare solar energy technologies with
fossil fuel technologies without accounting for those externalities