No new coal/nuclear power plants! Solar is nearing cost-competitiveness
Solar power keeps getting cheaper and cheaper. In fact, solar should be cost-competitive with nuclear and coal (in sunny climates) before new nuclear and coal plants could become operational.
And “cost-competitiveness” doesn’t even factor in the REAL cost of coal and nuclear, both of which create huge negative externalities that aren’t priced into their market cost. The “price” of nuclear power includes neither incredibly costly nuclear disasters nor our inability to get rid of deadly nuclear waste. Similarly, the “price” of coal does not include the immense future costs we’ll pay as our planet warms and our climate changes in devastating ways.
For more good news on solar, see these pretty charts and economic analysis of solar power.
Posted by James on Tuesday, June 14, 2011