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Comparing the Costs of Intermittent and Dispatchable Electricity Generating Technologies
Open accessAbstract
Economic evaluations of alternative electric generating technologies typically rely on comparisons between their expected “levelized cost” per MWh supplied. I demonstrate that this metric is inappropriate for comparing intermittent generating technologies like wind and solar with dispatchable generating technologies like nuclear, gas combined cycle, and coal. It overvalues intermittent generating technologies compared to dispatchable base load generating technologies. It also likely overvalues wind generating technologies compared to solar generating technologies. Integrating differences in production profiles, the associated variations in wholesale market prices of electricity, and life-cycle costs associated with different generating technologies is necessary to provide meaningful comparisons between them.
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Cited by
Brown, T. W., Bischof-Niemz, T., Blok, K., Breyer, C., Lund, H., & Mathiesen, B. V. (2018) · Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.rser.2018.04.113 · Cited by 519
Wind Energy: Forecasting Challenges for Its Operational Management
Pinson, P. (2013) · Statistical Science · doi:10.1214/13-sts445 · Cited by 377
Intermittency and the Value of Renewable Energy
Gowrisankaran, G., Reynolds, S. S., & Samano, M. (2016) · Journal of Political Economy · doi:10.1086/686733 · Cited by 322
A systematic review of the costs and impacts of integrating variable renewables into power grids
Heptonstall, P. J., & Gross, R. J. K. (2020) · Nature Energy · doi:10.1038/s41560-020-00695-4 · Cited by 321
What is the Value of CCS in the Future Energy System?
Heuberger, C. F., Staffell, I., Shah, N., & Dowell, N. M. (2017) · Energy Procedia · doi:10.1016/j.egypro.2017.03.1888 · Cited by 24
Metadata
- Authors
- Joskow, P. L.
- Venue
- American Economic Review
- Publisher
- American Economic Association
- Published
- 2011-05-01
- Volume
- 101
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 238-241
- ISSN
- 0002-8282 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2138380733
- Cited by
- 671
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 14.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
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