Fwd: [cleanair-l] High Cost Power

[Guest guest]

--- Ontario Clean Air Alliance

<contact wrote:

 

 

> In its Supply Mix Advice Report, the Ontario Power

> Authority (OPA) asserts

> that nuclear power is an economical option to meet

> our electricity needs.

> But when we asked the OPA to re-crunch the numbers

> using actual nuclear

> costs and performance rates rather than the highly

> optimistic assumptions

> used by the agency in its initial calculations, even

> we were shocked by the

> soaring cost of nuclear power.

>

> For example, when we substituted the required rate

> of return on capital that

> CIBC World Markets stated would be required for

> Bruce Power's nuclear

> restart project in place of the OPA's

> unrealistically low estimates, the

> cost of nuclear power jumped to 9.7 to 11.9 cents

> per kWh, 39-70% higher

> than the OPA's high-end estimate for the cost of

> power from a combined cycle

> natural gas generator.

>

> But that's just the tip of the iceberg. When we

> assumed that the cost of a

> new nuclear unit would be more in line with the

> actual cost of constructing

> the Darlington Nuclear Station (the last nuclear

> plant built in Ontario);

> that its capacity utilization rate would match the

> most recent performance

> of Ontario's nuclear fleet (65%); and CIBC's

> required rate of return on

> capital estimates, new nuclear came out with a

> whopping cost of 20.9 cents

> per kWh.

>

> You can buy a lot of wind turbines, efficiency

> increases and combined heat

> and power generation for 20.9 cents per kWh. This

> is 3 times the cost for

> power from a combined cycle gas plant and 2.5 times

> the cost of power from

> the eight wind and one hydro projects contracted by

> the OPA in 2005.

>

> It is direct evidence that investing in nuclear

> power will be so costly that

> there will be nothing but crumbs left for other more

> viable initiatives. In

> essence, pouring billions into new nuclear power

> would be the equivalent of

> pouring billions into public transit while

> continuing to allow unchecked

> urban sprawl - it's a recipe that simply doesn't

> work.

>

> For full details of our analysis, please see our new

> fact sheet, High Cost

> Energy: The economics of nuclear power, on our

> website at

> www.cleanairalliance.org

> <http://www.cleanairalliance.org/> .

>

>

>

> Please pass this message on to your friends.

>

> Thank you.

>

> Jessica Fracassi

> Communications & Membership Manager

> Ontario Clean Air Alliance

> 402-625 Church St, Toronto M4Y 2G1

> Phone: 416-926-1907 ext. 245

> Fax: 416-926-1601

> Email: contact

> Website: www.cleanairalliance.org

>

> _____

>

> The Ontario Clean Air Alliance is a coalition of

> health, environmental and

> consumer organizations, faith communities, unions,

> utilities, municipalities

> and individuals working for cleaner air through a

> coal phase-out and the

> shift to a renewable electricity future. Our

> partner organizations

> represent more than six million Ontarians.

>