I gathered the following information for the "Energize America" plan, and thought it would be useful to post here, on the various costs, options, and issues for different types of electric power plants. The full "Assumptions" document this comes from is
available here.
The following numbers are for the United States.
Coal
- Basic technology: burning fuel to provide heat for steam turbine.
- Efficiency (heat rate): 35% typical; little improvement possible
- Capital costs: $1000-$1200/kW
- Fuel costs (2004): 1.3 cents/kWh (from fuel costs of 136 cents/million btu)
- Installed base (2004): 1526 plants, 335 GW (average generator 220 MW)
- 2004 production: 1.98 trillion kWh (67% capacity factor)
- CO2 emissions: 2.0 pounds CO2/kWh; 1.85 billion tons total
- Other issues:
- coal mining hazardous to workers and environmentally destructive
- many other pollutants released in burning (controlled by Clean Air Act)
- excess deaths from coal pollution still believed to be about 30,000/year in US.
- coal supply is large but finite; thinner seams will be more costly to extract.
- Advanced technology options:
- gasification, integrated combined cycle operations - 17% reduction in CO2 emissions through higher overall efficiency ($1400/kW)
- sequestration - 100% reduction in CO2 through underground or other storage. ($2000/kW)
Gas
- Basic technology: burning fuel to run motor with alternator.
- Efficiency (heat rate): 40% typical
- Capital costs: $400-600/kW
- Fuel costs (2004): 5 cents/kWh (fuel costs of 596 cents/million btu)
- Installed base (2004): 3048 plants, 257 GW (average generator 84 MW)
- 2004 production: 709 billion kWh (31% capacity factor)
- CO2 emissions: 0.98 pounds CO2/kWh; 315 million metric tons total
- Advanced technology options:
- integrated combined cycle - use both heat and mechanical energy of combustion gases to reach 50% higher efficiency
Oil
- Basic technology: diesel internal combustion with alternator
- Efficiency (heat rate): 38% typical
- Capital costs: $400-600/kW
- Fuel costs: 4 cents/kWh (fuel costs of 429 cents/million btu)
- Installed base (2004): 3175 plants, 38 GW (average generator 12 MW)
- 2004 production: 121 billion kWh (36% capacity factor)
- CO2 emissions: 1.45 pounds CO2/kWh; 80 million metric tons total
- Advanced technology options: none?
Nuclear
- Basic technology: nuclear fission to provide heat for steam turbine.
- Efficiency: 35% typical
- Capital costs: $2000-3000/kW ? (No recent US experience)
- Fuel costs: 0.5 cents/kWh
- Installed base (2004): 104 plants, 106 GW (average generator 1020 MW)
- 2004 production: 788 billion kWh (85% capacity factor)
- CO2 emissions: 0
- Other issues:
- uranium fuel has limited supply
- enrichment necessary for most reactor operations, part of the process needed to develop weapons capabilities - proliferation risks
- breeder reactor proliferation risks from plutonium
- storage and disposal of long-lived waste unsettled
- public fear of radiation; Chernobyl accident
- Advanced technology options:
- High temperature reactors (higher efficiency)
- pebble bed and other "inherently safe" designs
- Fuel reprocessing and breeder reactors, to extend uranium supply
- Fusion (ITER project under development)
Wind
- Basic technology: turbine rotated directly by wind
- Efficiency: 35% typical; Betz limit close to 60%
- Capital costs: $1000-$1200/kW
- Fuel costs: 0
- Installed base (2004): 6.0 GW
- 2004 production: 14 billion kWh (27% capacity factor)
- CO2 emissions: 0
- Other issues:
- intermittency and unpredictability of wind power require backup generator or energy storage capacity
Solar Photovoltaic
- Basic technology: converts light directly to electricity in semiconductor cells
- Efficiency: 10-20% typical, up to 40% achieved in the lab.
- Capital costs: $5000-8000/kW (before tax credits)
- Fuel costs: 0
- Installed base (2004): 0.4 GW
- 2004 production: 579 million kWh (17% capacity factor)
- CO2 emissions: 0
- Other issues:
- Practical and almost as efficient in very small installations, down to a few kW (household roof-top scale)
- intermittency and unpredictability of solar power require backup generator or energy storage capacity
- semiconductor materials may be in short supply: gallium in particular. For silicon, industry is transitioning to independent supplies from previous reliance on materials also used by computer chip industry.
- Advanced technology options:
- thin film - lower use of expensive semiconducting materials
- solar concentrator - also allows lower use of semiconductors
Effects of Finance
The mix of options ranges from those with low capital costs but high fuel costs (natural gas and diesel generators) to those with very high capital costs and zero fuel costs (solar). Operations and maintenance costs in addition to fuel will add to the resulting cost per kWh. If a project can be financed with a low interest rate, higher capital costs may be manageable; if interest rates are high, then only projects with low capital costs will be economical.
Sources