Diablo Canyon is a special case. The plant operators took accelerated depreciation twice so the plant was fully depreciated in only 40 years. I believe this is the cause of the incredibly low cost of Diablo Canyon during extended operations at less than one cent per kWh.. I would appreciate your analysis and feedback.
Thanks for the positive comments. The work you and your group is doing is so valuable because we all know that when nuclear plants are shut down, they are replaced mostly with natural gas.
Based on your numbers that has to be cheapest energy until the end of 2025. I know very little about the financial issues of Diablo Canyon NP but investing a considerable amount of money to keep it open beyond 2025 is well worth it because that will be cheaper than any alternative replacement for dispatchable, CO2 free electricity. Firm energy is NOT solar plus 4 hours of batteries as my paper demonstrates.
Thanks, John. One way to consider an emission-free nuclear power plant is that it is superior to a battery that runs 18 months (13,150 hours) or longer. Using the coal-fired power from PacifiCorp's Dave Johnson coal-fired Power Plant to charge a battery does not magically make the air and water pollution from that plant disappear.
Impressive analysis. Do you have contact information? We are always looking for energy research, particularly offshore wind, here on the east coast, as we are facing the installation of thousands of wind turbine project off our coast.
Thank you for a careful technical and financial analysis regarding a valid cost comparison of nuclear power, solar power, and wind power. Please read
"Less than one cent per kilowatt-hour to keep Diablo Canyon running
- The likely cause is the plant is essentially fully-depreciated"
Gene Nelson, Ph.D. July 30, 2024 at the GreenNUKE Substack.
https://greennuke.substack.com/p/less-than-one-cent-per-kilowatt-hour
Diablo Canyon is a special case. The plant operators took accelerated depreciation twice so the plant was fully depreciated in only 40 years. I believe this is the cause of the incredibly low cost of Diablo Canyon during extended operations at less than one cent per kWh.. I would appreciate your analysis and feedback.
Thanks for the positive comments. The work you and your group is doing is so valuable because we all know that when nuclear plants are shut down, they are replaced mostly with natural gas.
Based on your numbers that has to be cheapest energy until the end of 2025. I know very little about the financial issues of Diablo Canyon NP but investing a considerable amount of money to keep it open beyond 2025 is well worth it because that will be cheaper than any alternative replacement for dispatchable, CO2 free electricity. Firm energy is NOT solar plus 4 hours of batteries as my paper demonstrates.
I put more comments on your newsletter.
Thanks, John. One way to consider an emission-free nuclear power plant is that it is superior to a battery that runs 18 months (13,150 hours) or longer. Using the coal-fired power from PacifiCorp's Dave Johnson coal-fired Power Plant to charge a battery does not magically make the air and water pollution from that plant disappear.
Impressive analysis. Do you have contact information? We are always looking for energy research, particularly offshore wind, here on the east coast, as we are facing the installation of thousands of wind turbine project off our coast.
Thanks for the nice comment. You can reach me at schlanj@yahoo.com.