The importance of these is that we can avoid spending huge amounts of money trying to "brute force" the alternatives into place or we can prioritize and plan and spend our money more wisely and more directly in research and ways that will quicken the technological capability so that there is a much greater benefit over time. Premature forcing will be harmful to the budgets of individuals and to the economy.
ESTIMATED LEVELIZED COST OF NEW GENERATION RESOURCES, 2016
Conventional Coal 94.8
Natural Gas-fired 66.1
Advanced nuclear 113.9
Wind 97.0 (limited capacity)
Wind - Offshore 243.2
Solar Photovoltaic 210.7
Solar Thermal 311.8
Geothermal 101.7 (geographically limited, but good)
Biomass 112.5
Hydro 86.4
Information Administration (EIA)
In some regions levelized costs of such things as Solar PV jump to 323.9 and higher costs for other items (see link above).
Comments: The costs that are double and triple coal costs are not feasible, though subject to wishful thinking (which is not good for a leader to use).
ANOTHER VIEW
Energy Source % of Total Cost Per KWh Weighted Avg Cost
Nuclear 19.7% $0.04 $0.008
Hydro 6.1 $0.03 $0.002
Coal 48.7 $0.04 $0.022
Natural Gas 21.4 $0.10 $0.022
Petroleum 1.1 $0.10 $0.001
Other Renewables 3.0 $0.15 $0.005
100% $0.059
$0.04 compared to renewables at $0.15 produces a vast financial handicap.
Nuclear is not a renewable resource beyond about 60 years, where the uranium supply will run too low, though we cannot predict what other technology may occur.
