Still, PV technology is maturing. And spreading. Last year in Germany, it fed about 2 TWh into the grid. *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
The Victoria project FAQ mentions they're building plants to produce needed pieces first so there are still risks.
On the other side the PV cell itself is coming from Spectrolab who has been in the business (for space use in decade length missions) for 50 years and still making progress. The rest is sun tracking mirrors which are not really new either. And if I believe this press release (cited on wikipedia) the CS500 model has been running commercially since 2003 (with a less efficient PV cell but the rest look identical).
BTW I didn't notice but BNP Paribas is also listed as member of the financing team for Jerome wind farm.
http://www.q7wind.nl/en/windpark.asp
Annual power production: 435 GWh
So that's slightly above (3.5%) the 420.5 GWh I computed so it puts the price per installed effective watt at 10.3 USD for wind (vs 10.7).
On wind, I again emphasize that your example is valid for off-shore wind, which is not much more out of its infacy than concentrated PV. On-shore parks may produce only 60%, but a MW installed costs a third than for Q7.
But, again, these are quibbles, not fundamental doubt in the technology. *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
