In June 2010, the North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network (NC WARN, Durham, North Carolina, US) released a report stating that solar photovoltaic (PV) energy generation is now less expensive per watt than new nuclear generation in the U.S. state. "Solar and Nuclear Costs – The Historic Crossover" was co-authored by Dr. John Blackburn, the emeritus chair of Duke University's (Durham, North Carolina, US) economics department. Dr. Blackburn says that it is an "apples to apples" comparison, including incentives, and that the findings have a clear message for state officials. "North Carolina should be leading, not lagging, in the transition to clean energy", said Dr. John Blackburn. "We call on Governor Perdue and state agencies to see that a very important turning point has been reached, and act accordingly."

Declines in the cost of solar generation

The report notes that costs of both PV and solar hot water continue to fall due to manufacturing and installation advances. The report used incentives, interviews with solar installers, published reports of solar trends to derive estimates for installed solar generation costs, which it compared to cost estimates to build nuclear plants.

The report noted that states with monopoly power markets are the ones still proposing to build new nuclear projects at taxpayer expense, and that design problems and rising cost estimates have led to the cancellation of many new nuclear plants. The report says that 2010 is the year that solar proponents have been waiting for, with solar costs decreasing to cost parity with new nuclear generation.

Nuclear Renaissance?

Three technologies make up 90% of annual electricity generation in the United States. Nuclear generation is the expensive form of the three, costing significantly more per watt of power produced than coal or natural gas generation. According to a 2009 update of a 2003 study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, Cambridge, Massachusetts), it currently costs an average of USD$.083 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to produce electricity via nuclear generation, versus USD$.065/kWh for natural gas and USD$.062/kWh for coal. However, the NC WARN report suggests that costs have increased drastically for new nuclear projects, with new nuclear generation in the USD$.14 to USD$.18/kWh range.

Nuclear power was widely protested in the United States following the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster in 1979, and groups like NC WARN are the survivors of the dozens of groups that cropped up across the country to prevent the construction of new nuclear power plants. Strong public opposition was one factor in the federal government's unwillingness to fund new nuclear power plants, which is necessary as the plants are both too expensive and too great a risk for private capital. No new nuclear power generation units were built in the US for over thirty years.

Recently, the nuclear power industry has been branding itself as a low-carbon alternative to fossil fuel generation. The industry has seen successes in its push for a “nuclear renaissance”, with US President Obama supplying loan guarantees for two new nuclear generation units in Georgia. However, a tritium leak in the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant in early 2010 has put nuclear power producers back on the defensive.

North Carolina, renewables and nuclear energy

The report by Dr. Blackburn states that North Carolina is behind twenty states when it comes to the development of clean energy industries. If North Carolina is behind twenty, there are a number of other states that it is clearly ahead of. North Carolina borders the US Deep South region, and unlike all Deep South states – South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana – North Carolina has passed a renewable portfolio standard (RPS), which requires that its utilities purchase or generate and increasing portion of their electricity from renewable energy sources. The state has set specific targets for PV generation, though the report's authors note that the state also has a law restricting rate increases to pay for solar generation.

2010-07-29 | Courtesy: NC WARN | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH