This is one debate which is going to rock the corridors of power or electricity generation for days to come, specifically when it comes to china, India and Indo-US Nuclear deal. I am fortunate to be part of both kind of power generation in one or other capacity in my professional life of 5 years.
Cost comparison: well cost is always illusion because it depends what you are comparing as it is always said “if u compare oranges with apples” than you are on wrong footage. Similarly if you compare cost in terms of capital cost or even may be cost inclusive of fuel as technically cost of power generation has got three heads:
1) Capital write-off,
2) Maintenance,
3) Fuel
1) Capital write-off,
2) Maintenance,
3) Fuel
Even comparison which takes into consideration all three major (so called visible major) than also it is not far from apple compared with oranges. Why? Well let me add to this.
Nuclear Power with my experience and publicly available figures cost around 6.5 crores per Megawatt of generation. Typical construction & commissioning time required is to the tune of minimum 7 years (at least today this is the minimum time that is required to put a reactor of scale of 1000MW, though we may claim to achieve the same in 5 years). With better project management (read private players), lesser government interference and assured equipment/material supply probably this time can be shortened to reasonable time period of around 4 years( I may be optimistic but I think this is achievable). Question that baffles all and nuclear industry in general is about the disposal of waste material (Radiation). Department of atomic energy and for that matter of fact nuclear industry world over has always preferred to remain silent over this issue. I think better governance, more transparency and public awareness should help in this regard. I don’t know why nuclear industry always wants to be under veil. Why can’t we have publicly available plans, cost analysis, project planning, yearly investments, cost overruns etc for nuclear establishments? As far as I believe waste disposal and handling nuclear radiation is not difficult task. But at most care should be taken during commissioning nuclear power plants with zero tolerance for any deviation from quality. The equipments quality, procedures followed should not be compromised at any cost and there should be strict regulation with severe criminal liability on the responsible person at the helm of installation. As far as I understand the biggest problem that Indian nuclear industry is facing today is “availability of fuel”. With the 123 agreement with US I believe availability should improve in short term (but at higher cost). I am yet to understand why there is so much of gap between the nuclear fuel availability with Department of atomic energy and the projections of nuclear power that are being made( leave apart question on the huge investments that have been carried out in last 3-4 years likes of Tarapur, Kaiga and Rajasthan). Any naive financial planner who believes that investments being done are from hard earned money of common tax payer should have behaved rationally while projecting the installed capacity and the availability of fuel. Coming back to 123 agreements though it is always thought to be a business development gimmick by US the likes of Vice president Dick Cheney (who is known to be the one of the biggest beneficiary of “Bird flu” gimmick) I believe India stands to gain out of this agreement, at least department of atomic energy will loose the stranglehold it has on “Nuclear Technology” which if taken care properly is comparable to any other form of energy.
Wind Power & Comparison costs around 6 crores per Megawatt of Installation. I used word installation because it is one megawatt of installation that costs around 6 crore as on today in India. With PLF of around 30-35% (Maximum that is achievable in India today) as compared to PLF of 95% with nuclear power which is pretty much realistic ( Probably India nuclear power is best in this regard with likes of generating stations such as Kakarpara, surat having world record on their name) nuclear power is clearly winner. Coming back to wind power, there are no fuel costs for the entire life time. Construction and Commissioning time for a wind power plant of 500MW capacity can be achieved (depending upon the availability of land) reasonably in time of around 2 years with wind power developers boasting the capacity of any way around 3000MW/Yearly (Suzlon alone boasts capacity of around 2000 plus commissioning turnkey capacity). But than if look in to the units generated by a wind plant it can never be comparable to nuclear power of similar capacity because of limitation of PLF. Today’s wind power industry is heavily dependent on depreciation benefits at least for “typical Indian customers”, though lately customer profile is changing drastically. Going green, Carbon credits, RPO (Renewable Purchase obligation targets) is increasingly becoming reasons of investments. Specifically when it comes to requirement of power at level of Giga watts or Terra watts wind power and for that matter of fact any renewable energy source is not in position to suffice the demand, its only and only nuclear power that can produce power of that level.
Nuclear Power with my experience and publicly available figures cost around 6.5 crores per Megawatt of generation. Typical construction & commissioning time required is to the tune of minimum 7 years (at least today this is the minimum time that is required to put a reactor of scale of 1000MW, though we may claim to achieve the same in 5 years). With better project management (read private players), lesser government interference and assured equipment/material supply probably this time can be shortened to reasonable time period of around 4 years( I may be optimistic but I think this is achievable). Question that baffles all and nuclear industry in general is about the disposal of waste material (Radiation). Department of atomic energy and for that matter of fact nuclear industry world over has always preferred to remain silent over this issue. I think better governance, more transparency and public awareness should help in this regard. I don’t know why nuclear industry always wants to be under veil. Why can’t we have publicly available plans, cost analysis, project planning, yearly investments, cost overruns etc for nuclear establishments? As far as I believe waste disposal and handling nuclear radiation is not difficult task. But at most care should be taken during commissioning nuclear power plants with zero tolerance for any deviation from quality. The equipments quality, procedures followed should not be compromised at any cost and there should be strict regulation with severe criminal liability on the responsible person at the helm of installation. As far as I understand the biggest problem that Indian nuclear industry is facing today is “availability of fuel”. With the 123 agreement with US I believe availability should improve in short term (but at higher cost). I am yet to understand why there is so much of gap between the nuclear fuel availability with Department of atomic energy and the projections of nuclear power that are being made( leave apart question on the huge investments that have been carried out in last 3-4 years likes of Tarapur, Kaiga and Rajasthan). Any naive financial planner who believes that investments being done are from hard earned money of common tax payer should have behaved rationally while projecting the installed capacity and the availability of fuel. Coming back to 123 agreements though it is always thought to be a business development gimmick by US the likes of Vice president Dick Cheney (who is known to be the one of the biggest beneficiary of “Bird flu” gimmick) I believe India stands to gain out of this agreement, at least department of atomic energy will loose the stranglehold it has on “Nuclear Technology” which if taken care properly is comparable to any other form of energy.
Wind Power & Comparison costs around 6 crores per Megawatt of Installation. I used word installation because it is one megawatt of installation that costs around 6 crore as on today in India. With PLF of around 30-35% (Maximum that is achievable in India today) as compared to PLF of 95% with nuclear power which is pretty much realistic ( Probably India nuclear power is best in this regard with likes of generating stations such as Kakarpara, surat having world record on their name) nuclear power is clearly winner. Coming back to wind power, there are no fuel costs for the entire life time. Construction and Commissioning time for a wind power plant of 500MW capacity can be achieved (depending upon the availability of land) reasonably in time of around 2 years with wind power developers boasting the capacity of any way around 3000MW/Yearly (Suzlon alone boasts capacity of around 2000 plus commissioning turnkey capacity). But than if look in to the units generated by a wind plant it can never be comparable to nuclear power of similar capacity because of limitation of PLF. Today’s wind power industry is heavily dependent on depreciation benefits at least for “typical Indian customers”, though lately customer profile is changing drastically. Going green, Carbon credits, RPO (Renewable Purchase obligation targets) is increasingly becoming reasons of investments. Specifically when it comes to requirement of power at level of Giga watts or Terra watts wind power and for that matter of fact any renewable energy source is not in position to suffice the demand, its only and only nuclear power that can produce power of that level.
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