Record value . cents per kilowatt hour

A tender for an 800-megawatt photovoltaic project in Qatar ended at a record low. The contract was awarded to a consortium that offered the kilowatt hour for 1.415 euro cents - and this for 25 years. For a plant of this size, this is the lowest price ever achieved for renewable energy.

"To put this in perspective - a nuclear power plant needs around 11 cents per kilowatt hour purely for day-to-day operation to cover its running costs. However, aspects such as dismantling and environmental influences have not yet been taken into account," explains Dr. Rimpler. The PV expert also sees costs of three to four cents per kilowatt hour for the cheapest - and most environmentally damaging - coal-fired power plants; only large hydroelectric power plants that have already been fully written off can keep up with the price levels achieved in Qatar. "This shows the

great potential

of using solar energy

. The technological development in this segment is far from complete."