damn... the header is supposed to be "Disappointing" ah...

damn... the header is supposed to be "Disappointing"

ah well.

pertinent points.

Calculated LCOE by technology and category for 2030

The results indicate that the cost of deploying high VRE shares is 40% to 60% higher in 2023 than in 2030. Around a half to three quarters of the higher costs (depending on the VRE share) are due to investors having to pay 2023 instead of 2030 technology costs. Technology costs are falling over time.

The remainder of the difference is due to the cost of the pre-2030 committed and under construction storage and transmission projects. Total integration costs to make high shares of variable renewables reliable are estimated at $34/MWh to $41/MWh in 2023 and $25 to $34/MWh in 2030 depending on the VRE share.

The LCOE cost range for variable renewables with integration costs is the lowest of all new-build technologies in 2023 and 2030. The cost range overlaps slightly with the lower end of the cost range for coal and gas generation.

However, the lower end of the range for coal and gas is only achievable if they can deliver a high capacity factor, source low cost fuel and be financed at a rate that does not include climate policy risk despite their high emissions. If we exclude high emission generation options, the next most competitive generation technology is gas with carbon capture and storage.Significant increase in nuclear small modular reactor costs

The cost of nuclear small modular reactors (SMR) has been a contentious issue in GenCost for many years with conflicting data published by other groups proposing lower costs than those assumed in GenCost (ES Figure 0-3). UAMPS (Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems) is a US regional coalition that develops local government owned electricity generation projects.

Up until the project’s cancellation in November 2023, UAMP was the developer of a nuclear SMR project called the Carbon Free Power Project (CFPP) with a gross capacity of 462MW. It was planned to be fully operational by 2030. After conversion to 2023 Australian dollars, project costs were estimated in 2020 to be $18,200/kW which is only slightly below the level that GenCost had been applying ($19,000kW).