31st
Nuclear Power Costs Rise Higher Than Solar
Several ratings agencies and law/environment folks have reported that the costs behind building and operating nuclear power plants is estimated to be more than the costs of solar energy facilities.
“Solar photovoltaics have joined the ranks of lower-cost alternatives to new nuclear plants,” John O. Blackburn, a professor of economics at Duke University, in North Carolina, and Sam Cunningham, a graduate student, wrote in the paper, “Solar and Nuclear Costs — The Historic Crossover.”
This crossover occurred at 16 cents per kilowatt hour, they said.
While solar power costs have been declining, the costs of nuclear power have been rising inexorably over the past eight years, said Mark Cooper, senior fellow for economic analysis at Vermont Law School’s Institute for Energy and Environment.
However, a lot of the analysis seems to focus on historical costs of nuclear power plants — which doesn’t really account for technology improvements that could reduce the risks and costs of nuclear energy. Also, the gov’t subsidies that seem to prop up the nuclear industry are portrayed as a boondoggle for US taxpayers. But the gov’t also subsidizes solar and other alternative energy projects, and I wonder if it’s really fair to say that nuclear energy development projects are a waste of taxpayer funds.
