Nuclear Monitor #938
Jan van Evert
Picture https://renewables.az/
A new study by the Aalborg University in Denmark has shown that solar and wind power are 53 percent cheaper than nuclear power if the cost of integrating that technology into the wider energy system are included in the calculations. The system-based levelized cost of energy (SLCOE) is an alternative to the standard LCOE benchmark. LCOE only measures the cost of producing a unit of electricity from a given technology. The study models Denmark’s current electricity-only grid and a future climate-neutral energy system with full sector coupling, using the EnergyPLAN model. In a future climate-neutral integrated system, which is the central comparison of the study, nuclear’s SLCOE is approximately €100/MWh. The least-cost mix of offshore wind and solar power is approximately €46/MWh.
Professor Christian Breyer, one of the authors of the study, explains that the driver of the low costs for renewables is sector coupling. This provides thermal storage, hydrogen storage via electrolysis, flexible heat pump operation, and electric vehicle smart charging. The analysis tests four cost assumption sets. Under all scenarios in the future integrated system, solar and wind power outperform nuclear power on SLCOE. For countries where wind resources are limited such as the Middle East and India, Breyer pointed to external literature indicating that batteries and flexible demand are the most important integration tools.
The study excludes the cost of nuclear waste storage and the opportunity cost of foregone renewable deployment during the construction of a nuclear power plant. This construction lasts on average fifteen years. If these two factors had been included the cost difference between renewables and nuclear power would have been even larger. And another important cost factor, the demolition cost of nuclear power plants, isn’t included either.
