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devoish (71.86)

Nuclear vs Solar Power Trendlines

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August 07, 2010 – Comments (4)

 

The chart did not come through. But the gist of the story is that the cost of solar power has decreased while the cost of nuclear has increased - and nuclear costs more than solar.

http://current.com/technology/92581995_duke-report-claims-solar-energy-is-now-cheaper-than-nuclear-power-dailytech.htm 

Note: the costs include subsidies for both solar and nuclear, without which it is estimated the crossover is actually nine years away.

4 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On August 07, 2010 at 10:30 AM, portefeuille (98.81) wrote:

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Duke Report Claims Solar Energy is Now Cheaper Than Nuclear Power

Financial crossover occurred in North Carolina, bringing new opportunities

Duke University has reported that solar energy costs are now cheaper than nuclear energy costs after a "historic crossover" in North Carolina. 

The paper on this topic was written by John O. Blackburn, professor of economics at Duke University in North Carolina, and Sam Cunningham, a graduate student at Duke. The paper is titled "Solar and Nuclear Costs - The Historic Crossover," and shows that change in costs on both solar and nuclear energy has finally forced them to meet, and then solar stole the show by becoming the new low-in-price renewable energy resource.

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#2) On August 07, 2010 at 10:33 AM, portefeuille (98.81) wrote:

Figure 1: The Historic Crossover — Solar photovoltaic costs are falling as new nuclear costs are rising.

The Solar PV least-squares trendline is fit to data points representing the actual cost of producing a kilowatt-hour in the year shown through 2010 and for cost projections from 2010 to 2020. The nuclear trendline is fit to cost projections made in the year shown on the x-axis of eventual kilowatt-hour cost if projects reach completion. See complete methodology in Appendix A.

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#3) On August 07, 2010 at 3:14 PM, devoish (71.86) wrote:

portefeuille,

Thanks.

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#4) On August 07, 2010 at 7:33 PM, rofgile (99.35) wrote:

Definite rec for this article!  Quite interesting read.

National Geographic had a great article on future solar capacity last year too (Rof blog) - solar and wind both look like they have huge room to expand.  Wind's taking a breather this year, but maybe in a year or two it will continue its climb.

I'm investing with personal savings in solar through FSLR, and I was invested with Vestas for Wind - but I pulled out of Vestas this year for a bit as wind projects are really slumping this year.

 -rof 

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