Comparision of Wind and Nuclear Power Economics

The Renewable Energy Community is actively promoting Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) for adoption by states as legal mandates for compliance by electrical power utilities. These standards, if implemented, would require utilities to acquire “renewable energy” from available sources or purchases often without full consideration of ratepayer cost impact. An economic analysis of the costs for production of equivalent electrical power base load capacity is developed and compared for both wind and nuclear general electrical power. Various cost components, including utility impact for providing base load supplies, are examined and compared. This analysis allows the anticipated costs to ratepayers for projected wind and nuclear generated electricity to be compared.