Replies to post #14909 on The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[mouton29]

<<I read it differently. The cost per kwh includes the amortization of all capital costs including the battery storage>>

I don't see how you read "excluding" to mean they include cost of storage in the three cent figure.

Excluding the cost of storage, TEP will buy the system’s output for 20 years for less than three cents per kilowatt hour

Now, one can argue, as biotech_researcher did, that storage should not be included -- you wouldn't include it for a nuclear power plant, he pointed out. But nuclear power is generated continuously, not just when the sun shines so there is rather less need to storage for a nuclear power plant. However, as the Tucson electric article points out, by investing in solar and wind, they can minimize variability and so to some extent, the need for storage:

EP will invest in both solar and wind systems to mitigate intermittency and variability – operational challenges associated with the expansion of renewable resources.