At last an “All-In” LCOE that puts an end to the damned lies that Wind and Solar are cheap!

LCOE for Onshore Wind: $24/MWh to $75/MWh. LCOE for Nuclear: $141/MWh to $221/MWh

The above damned lies come from the latest Lazard’s LCOE ‘analysis’ (Page 2)

The 16 million population of the Carolinas will have to say thank you, thank you thank you to The John Locke Foundation for their:

Analysis of Duke Energy’s Carolinas Carbon Plan and a Least Cost Decarbonization Alternative

Document Page 47: “…3. Factors Affecting the “All-In” Levelized Cost of Renewables All power plants, regardless of fuel type, have upfront capital costs to repay, require transmission lines, pay property taxes, and, in areas with government-approved monopoly utilities, earn profits for electric companies. However, the intermittency of wind and solar results in a situation where these expenses are greater on electric grids utilizing high levels of renewables compared with grids with more dispatchable generators.

Additionally, the intermittency of wind and solar impose unique expenses on the electric grid that are not imposed by dispatchable generators. These costs include the imposed cost on existing generators, load-balancing costs, and the costs associated with overbuilding and curtailing wind and solar generators to reduce the need for battery storage while at the same time preventing the grid from becoming overloaded…”

Document Page 50: ”…This “overbuilding” and curtailing vastly increases the amount of installed capacity needed on the grid to meet electricity demand during periods of low wind and solar output. The subsequent curtailment during periods of high wind and solar availability effectively lowers the capacity factor of all wind and solar facilities, which greatly increases the cost per MWh produced…”

And from the Conclusion:
“…Furthermore, nuclear power plants, which can last for up to 80 years, would provide lower-cost electricity in the future as they depreciate and repay initial capital costs. That is not the case for wind and solar assets that only last 20 and 25 years, respectively. They would necessitate a constant “build and rebuild” treadmill of capital expenditures that virtually guarantee ratepayers never have low-cost electricity after capital costs are recouped…”

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Unfortunately, the ‘Analysis of the Least Cost Decarbonization Portfolio’ considers: Document Page 39: “…[Small Modular Reactor] SMR power plants are used more for ramping needs, and as such the cost per MWh would increase over time as the plants are utilized less frequently…”.

Vastly more economical is the use of SMRs in combination with PEM electrolysers, which can load follow electricity demand in milliseconds, manufacture nuclear enabled hydrogen (NEH) and benefit from 4 revenue streams.