Costs of Generation
Falcon
power specialist, has issued the 2010 update to its Powering the Nation
report to reflect recent major changes in the economy and in the power plant
market. First issued in 2006 - and updated in 2008 - the report is used by
both private and public sectors as a benchmark for power generation costs.
The 2010 update covers a range of generating technologies including tidal,
offshore and onshore wind, combined and open cycle gas turbines,
conventional and clean coal, biomass and nuclear. It also factors in the
potential cost of carbon capture and storage attached to coal and gas
generation.
The generating costs (pence per kilowatt hours) for each generation type are
shown as a distribution of likely values rather than a single estimate. The
company believes this provides a more realistic approach for the range of
uncertainty in plant costs applicable to each type. Data is also presented
as a typical breakdown of cost contributions from different elements
including capital, fuel and other operating costs.
Typical cost ranges include:
Tidal generation - between 16 and 38 pence per kWh
Offshore wind - between 15 and 21 pence per kWh
Onshore wind - between 8 and 11 pence per kWh
Combined cycle gas turbine - between 6 and 11 pence per kWh
Nuclear - between 6 and 8 pence per kWh
Full details are available online at
http://www.pbworld.co.uk/index.php?doc=528
The update does not take account of the costs of transmission on the [UK]
national grid, which reflects current uncertainty relating to the treatment
of costs by the transmission system operators for offshore wind and other
geographically distributed generation types. For example, if the cost of
transmission for offshore wind farms were allocated exclusively to offshore
wind generation, it is estimated that this would increase the typical
generation costs from this generation source by up to 20 per cent.
I trust that anyone who feels the urge to comment will actually read it
first.
--
Falcon:
fide, sed cui vide. (L)