11 Jul (NucNet): Estimates submitted to the British parliament for the cost of new onshore wind farms range from £90.2 per megawatt hour (MWh) to £187/MWh, with nuclear in the range of £60/MWh to £98/MWh.
In written evidence submitted to parliament’s Energy and Climate Change Committee, the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said that based on estimates for projects starting in 2011, onshore wind sites larger than five megawatts would generate electricity at a levelised cost of £90.2/MWh.
The equivalent levelised cost for first-of-a-kind (FOAK) new nuclear would be £74.1 /MWh and for offshore wind plants £121.6/MWh. According to other estimates cited in written evidence to the committee, third generation nuclear has been variously reported as £60 to £98/MWh.
But Sir Donald Miller, chairman of utility Scottish Power from 1982-92, said levelised cost estimates – the cost of generating electricity at the point of connection to a load or electricity grid – are at best a “rough and ready and sometimes misleading” approach for costing alternative generation policies.
He said data from four published reports compiled by different consulting engineers indicates the total costs for energy from onshore wind are typically £187/MWh.
Sir Donald said this is the cost of bulk energy at a point on the high voltage transmission system where it is delivered into the lower voltage distribution systems to service consumers.
It comprises capital costs, return on capital (including profit) for the developer, operation and maintenance, costs of additional high voltage transmission including losses, the provision of back-up generating capacity as well as the costs of running the backup plant.
Sir Donald said the £187/MWhr has to be compared with the current cost of bulk energy from conventional generation of some £60/MWh. For offshore wind the costs are significantly higher at £265/MWh.
Energy company RWE cited a report claiming the cost of FOAK nuclear ranges from 60/MWh to 99/MWh with NOAK (nth-of-a-kind) nuclear from £60-80/MWh. For onshore wind costs are put at £94/MWh and for FOAK offshore wind £157-£186/MWh.
Professor Colin Gibson, formerly power networks director at the National Grid, said the median costs for nuclear are in the range of £60-£70/MWh, whereas the results for onshore and offshore wind are £190/MWh and £265/MWh respectively.
Scottish renewables, citing reports by consultancy firm Mott Macdonald, said large-scale onshore wind output costs £83/ MWh and nuclear £96/MWh.
The Wales and Borders Alliance said the wind industry claims that the levelised cost of onshore wind makes it a fully competitive power source – as low as £75/MWh in 2010, decreasing to £72/MWh by 2015 compared with gas at £76.6/MWh and nuclear at £74/MWh.
The Centre for Energy Policy and Technology at Imperial College put costs at £97/MWh for nuclear, £88/MWh for onshore wind and £149/MWh for offshore wind.
Energy policy expert Brian Catt, an electrical engineer and physicist, said in his submission that nuclear is the only “truly adequate, long term sustainable zero carbon electrical energy source we have”.
He said it would take 300,000 one-megawatt wind turbines operating at their optimum 20 percent average rated output to meet the UK's current 60 GW peak demand. That would mean three turbines per square mile over the whole of the UK.
Environmentalists for Nuclear Energy said new nuclear reactors are very flexible in response to load variations and would be better than plans for wind farms in the UK.
The written evidence to the committee, which has been holding a hearing into the economics of wind power, is online:
www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201213/cmselect/cmenergy/writev/517/517.pdf
