Climate Changed
Renewables Are Starting to Crush Aging U.S. Nukes, Coal Plants
- Building wind farms often cheaper than running old coal plants
- Fluctuations in solar, wind power remain a challenge: Lazard
Construction at a wind farm in Ohio.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg
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Building solar and wind farms has started to become a cheaper proposition than running aging coal and nuclear generators in parts of the U.S., according to financial adviser Lazard Ltd.
Take wind: Building and operating a utility-scale farm costs $30 to $60 a megawatt-hour over its lifetime, and that can drop to as low as $14 when factoring in subsidies, according an annual analysis that Lazard’s been performing for a decade. Meanwhile, just keeping an existing coal plant running can cost $26 to $39 and a nuclear one $25 to $32.