Tuesday, 21 February 2017

UK Electricity 2050 Part 4: Nuclear and renewables cost comparisons

Energy Matters



Guest post by Energy Matters’ commentator Alex Terrell. Part 4 of the series on designing a renewable or nuclear electricity supply for the UK in 2050, where parts 1 to 3 were co-authored with Andy Dawson. Here costs of the renewable and nuclear options are compared. The forecast based on BEIS’ median 2030 scenarios for renewables (wind+solar) comes in at £143 / MWh and for nuclear at £84 / MWh, for wholesale costs. Both costs will be a lot lower if the respective technologies improve as their advocates hope.
 SUMMARY
Part 1 of this series on 2050 electricity demand provided a “high electrification” scenario where the average electricity demand was approximately 72GW, but peak demand on exceptionally cold days could reach 121GW. Part 2 described how this demand could be fulfilled with a nuclear supply model, and Part 3 described how it could be fulfilled with wind and solar.

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