Ridiculously expensive: Wind and Solar Energy

The Economist, a British magazine, discusses a report done in the U.S. that compares the costs of wind and solar energy to coal.

Coal?  Yeah - coal is very cheap.

Wind and Solar are not cheap.  They are ridiculously expensive.

We don't have to pay high energy costs.  This applies to investment costs as well.  PB
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From the Economist.com:

Solar power is by far the most expensive way of reducing carbon emissions - it costs $189,000 to replace 1MW per year of power from coal.

Wind is the next most expensive.

Hydro-power provides a modest net benefit.

But the most cost-effective zero-emission technology is nuclear power.

The pattern is similar if 1MW of gas-fired capacity is displaced instead of coal.

And all this assumes a carbon price of $50 a tonne.

Using actual carbon prices (below $10 in Europe) makes solar and wind look even worse.
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Link: http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21608646-wind-and-solar-power-are-even-more-expensive-commonly-thought-sun-wind-and