U.S. power plant costs up 130 pct since 2000

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssEnergyNews/idUSN1339129420080214

RPT-U.S. power plant costs up 130 pct since 2000 -CERA

Thu Feb 14, 2008 9:00am EST
(Repeats story from overnight)
By Bernie Woodall

HOUSTON, Feb 14 (Reuters) - The cost of building a U.S. power plant has risen 130 percent since 2000, and 27 percent in the 12 months to October 2007 alone, according to a new index developed by Cambridge Energy Research Associates and released on Thursday.

...

While no nuclear plants have been built since the 1980s, the index tracks how much one would have cost in 2000 and then again at the end of the third quarter of 2007.

Ward said that since 2000, the costs for plants that emit more carbon dioxide have gone up the least.

Nuclear power construction costs -- mostly materials, labor and engineering -- have gone up 185 percent as shown by the index, followed by wind power costs up 95 percent, natural gas plants up 90 percent and coal-fired plants up 70 percent.

...

[Warpy]

1. Not just construction costs

There's been a recent upsurge in the price of coal, the red haired stepchild of fuels, mostly due to demand from China. They're putting a couple of new coal fired electrical plants online every week and have been for some time now.

Competition from China is going to force the rest of the world into considering renewable energy. Generation using fossil fuels will simply become too expensive, as will the construction of the newer generation of nuclear power plants---especially when the cost of taking out the garbage is factored in.

[hunter]

2. These are the "receding horizons" GliderGuider talks about.

We don't yet realize how dependent our economy is upon cheap oil and natural gas.

[bananas]

3. Last two paragraphs of the article

"The real problem we have is high industrial growth at the same time as we have growth in the energy construction business," Scott said.

Still, rising demand for power will not keep plants from being built, said the researchers, who expect 80,000 megawatts to 110,000 megawatts in new U.S. plants to come on line in the next five years. A megawatt can power about 750 U.S. homes. (Editing by Braden Reddall)