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Nuclear power is losing the race to renewable energy sources both in terms of capacity and cost as its reactors are increasingly viewed as too slow and too expensive to reverse carbon emissions and be an effective aid in the battle against climate change, a new report has said.
New wind and solar installations are competing efficiently against existing nuclear power plants in cost terms and generating capacity faster than any other power source, the annual World Nuclear Industry Status Report (WNISR) concluded.
“Stabilising the climate is urgent, nuclear power is slow,” said Mycle Schneider, the report's lead author. “It meets no technical or operational need that low-carbon competitors cannot meet better, cheaper and faster.”
According to the report's estimation, since 2009 the average time take for reactor construction was just under 10 years. This is much higher than the World Nuclear Association's estimate of 5 to 8.5 years.
The additional time takes to build nuclear plants has implications on climate targets, because existing fossil-fuelled plants will continue emitting CO2 in the meantime.
“To protect the climate, we must abate the most carbon at the least cost and in the least time,” Schneider said.
Nuclear power is also a more expensive option, the report has says. Per megawatt hour (MWh), WNISR says the cost of generating solar energy ranges from between $36 (€32.5) to $44 (€39.75) MWh, while onshore wind power is between $29 (€26.2) and $56 (€50.6) MWh. The cost of nuclear energy, by comparison, costs between $112 (€101.2) and $189 (€170.8).
“Nuclear new-builds cost many times more per kilowatt-hour so it buys many times less climate solution per dollar, than these major low-carbon competitors,” said the report.
The WNISR also estimated that over the last ten years, the levelised costs - a comparison of the total lifetime costs of constructing and running a plant to its lifetime output - for solar power have dropped by 88% and for wind by 69%.
The levelised costs of nuclear power have increased by 23% over the same time period.
This trend is reflected in capital flows. Last year, China invested $91-billion (€82.2-billion) in renewable energy, but only $6.5-billion (€5.87-billion) in nuclear.
Despite being the world's most aggressive builder of nuclear power plants, adding almost 40 reactors to its energy grid in the past decade, China's nuclear output was still 30% less than its wind generation.
There are still several new nuclear power plants under construction in China, but no new projects have been commissioned since 2016.
The report says that globally, nuclear operating capacity has increased by 3.4% in the past 12 months to 370 GW, a historic high, but as renewable capacity quickly grows, nuclear's share in the world's gross power generation has stayed at around 10%.
The WNISR estimates that in order to maintain the status quo, 188 new nuclear reactors would have to be connected in the next decade. This is three times more than those built in the past decade.
The report concluded by saying: “Whatever the rationales for continuing and expanding nuclear power, for climate protection it has become counterproductive and the new subsidies and decision rules its owners demand would dramatically slow this decade’s encouraging progress toward cheaper, faster options – more climate-effective solutions.”
For the full text of the report, click here.
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