January 6th, 2012
The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s forecasts can be used as a pre-fukushima baseline scenario. They use the year 2035 as their terminal year. This is unfortunate and potentially misleading. Many existing nuclear plants (essentially all existing U.S. plants) will retire within a few years after 2035, even if they are able to secure 20-year license extensions. This means that sustaining nuclear’s share of total electricity generation, would require substantial construction of new nuclear plants well before midcentury both to meet growing electricity demand and to replace retiring units. Continue reading »
Posted in Energy Policy, Nuclear Power | 1 Comment »
October 16th, 2010
Economic evaluations of alternative electric generating technologies typically rely on
comparisons between their expected life-cycle production costs per unit of electricity supplied. The standard life-cycle cost metric utilized is the “levelized cost” per MWh supplied. This metric is inappropriate for comparing intermittent generating technologies like wind and solar with dispatchable generating technologies like nuclear, gas combined cycle, and coal. It fails to take into account differences in the production profiles of intermittent and dispatchable generating technologies and the associated large variations in the market value of the electricity they supply. Levelized cost comparisons overvalue intermittent generating technologies compared to dispatchable base load generating technologies. They also overvalue wind generating technologies compared to solar generating technologies.
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Posted in Climate Change, Electricity | 1 Comment »
January 21st, 2009
The current national policy vacuum affecting the US electric power sector will undermine efficient climate change policies.
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Posted in Electricity | 1 Comment »
October 7th, 2007
In a recent talk at London I discussed the strengths and weaknesses of alternative models of electricity transmission network and system operator ownership and governance. This discussion may help to inform the debate in the EU regarding these issues. Continue reading »
Posted in Electricity, English | No Comments »
May 20th, 2007
Nuclear power now accounts for almost 20% of the electricity produced in the United States. However, the last nuclear power plant completed in the U.S. entered commercial operation in 1994 and no new nuclear plants have received construction permits since the Three Mile Island accident in1979. If the existing fleet of nuclear plants were to run only until the end of their initial license periods, the supply of electricity from nuclear power would begin to decline in about 2015 and reach zero in about 2030. How may this pattern change? Continue reading »
Posted in Energy Policy, English, Nuclear Power | 4 Comments »
