News & Views item - October 2010

 

 

 Projected Changes in the Cost of Electrical Energy. (October 11, 2010)

The Comment section in the September 23, 2010 issue of Nature featured articles for and against the future building of nuclear power plants in the United States.

 

Charles D. Ferguson and Lindsey E. Marburger of the Federation of American Scientists contributed "Point: The best way forward."

 

The chart below is taken from the article by J. Doyne Farmer of the Santa Fe Institute and Arjun Makhijani of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, entitles "Counterpoint: Not Wanted, not needed"

 

Between 1981 and 2001 the capital cost of wind power dropped by a factor of about four. Over roughly the same period (see graph), solar photovoltaic energy costs decreased by a factor of almost ten. Since about 2003, increases in the costs of materials, due in part to the dramatic growth in demand in China, have pushed up the capital costs of all energy-generation technologies except solar.

 

 

References

  • Fthenakis, v., Mason, J. e. & Zweibel, K. Energy Policy 37, 387–399 (2009).

  • Cooper, M. The Economics of Nuclear Reactors: Renaissance or Relapse? (2009).

  • Farmer, J. D. & Trancik, J. Dynamics of Technological Development in the Energy Sector (London accord, 2007).

  • Report of the Interagency Task Force on Carbon Capture and Storage (2010);available at go.nature.com/BrBvQ2

  •  Mason, J. Wind with CAES Power Plant Model: Base Load Capacity Option(renewable energy research Institute, 2009).