23 Jan (NucNet): The average levelised cost of electricity from existing nuclear plants in the European Union will be slightly less than €60/MWh in 2030, making it cheaper than all the other forms of energy, according to a report from the European commission.
The report said this compares to an average of about €65/MWh for existing hydro capacity, €75/MWh for wind and €85/MWh for solar. Biomass will be the most expensive energy source at around €140/MWh with oil and gas second at around €135/MWh.
The LCOE for new nuclear capacity in 2030 will be about €95/MWh – around the same as combined cycle gas turbines – with hydro at just over €40/MWh, wind at just over €70/MWh and solar just over €80/MWh.
According to the figures, based on an EU energy system model known as Primes, new biomass will remain the most expensive energy form at around €140/MWh with oil and gas second at around €135/MWh.
The commission said the costs for storage and additional interconnections are not accounted for in the figures.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has put the LCOE for the construction of new nuclear power plants in a range from US$40 to US$100/MWh (about €35 to €88).
LCOE captures both capital and operating costs that need to be covered. It is essentially the long-term price at which the electricity produced by a power plant will have to be sold at for the investor to cover all their costs.
The commission report also said the UK leads the EU in giving subsidies to fossil fuels. It found €12bn a year in support for fossil fuels in the UK, significantly more than the €8.3bn spent on renewable energy.
Germany provided the biggest energy subsidies, with €27bn for renewable energy, almost three times the €9.5bn given to fossil fuels. Spain and Italy also gave more subsidies to renewable energy than fossil fuels.
The report is based on 2016 Eurostat data, the latest available, and found that across the EU renewable energy received 45% of subsidies and fossil fuels 33%.
The report is online: https://bit.ly/2RQ7sk5
