Solar Power now cheaper than Nuclear?

by: Hopeful

Thu Jul 29, 2010 at 01:35:28 PM EDT

The Holy Grail of the solar industry - reaching grid parity - may no longer be a distant dream. Solar may have already reached that point, at least when compared to nuclear power, according to a new study by two researchers at Duke University.

It's no secret that the cost of producing photovoltaic cells (PV) has been dropping for years. A PV system today costs just 50 percent of what it did in 1998. Breakthroughs in technology and manufacturing combined with an increase in demand and production have caused the price of solar power to decline steadily. At the same time, estimated costs for building new nuclear power plants have ballooned.

Admittedly this Duke study is based on is a study of energy costs in North Carolina, and the authors plainly are advocating for solar energy. Still, nuclear plants have a record of turning into white elephants while chips have been getting cheaper and cheaper. I bet the main trends are the same here:

The plot (which you can click on) is taken from the study. Of course, nuclear has certain advantages (think nighttime) but this is an important development--encouraging for solar if depressing for nuclear. I also point to this quote from the study:

Employment in North Carolina has more to gain from investment in solar electric and solar water installations than from the same amount of investment in nuclear plant construction and operation - by a factor of three.

Thanks to House of Progress at OpenLeft for pointing me to this study.