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> $1.1 billion dollars will buy around that many watts of installed solar, at today's prices. Vastly more in another decade. The nuclear plant produces 2.2GW.
by ars 3y ago
> $1.1 billion dollars will buy around that many watts of installed solar, at today's prices. Vastly more in another decade.
The nuclear plant produces 2.2GW. Solar costs $1/W. So $1.1 billion will get you 1.1GW.
The plant thus has twice the return on investment of solar - and is already here right now and doesn't need to be constructed.
It makes more sense to shut the plant once no more coal or gas is being burned, rather than waste all that energy right now.
- PaulHoule 3y agoIt's hard to compare nuclear v/ solar because of availability. A well-run NPP can have much better than 80% uptime. A solar farm depends on the sun. So 1GW of nuclear capacity is worth more than 1GW of solar. Thus the very low prices being quoted for solar systems today are not entirely honest.
- grecy 3y agoAs others have pointed out in this thread, the $1.1 billion is not running costs for the plant, that just covers some expenses to renew it. So actually getting a continuous 2.2GW from the nuclear plant will cost a lot more than $1.1 billion.