Number: RL34746
Title: Power Plants: Characteristics and Costs
Authors: Stan Kaplan, Resources, Science, and Industry Division 
Abstract: This report analyzes the factors that determine the cost of electricity from new power plants. These factors - including construction costs, fuel expense, environmental regulations, and financing costs - can all be affected by government energy, environmental, and economic policies. Government decisions to influence, or not influence, these factors can largely determine the kind of power plants that are built in the future. For example, government policies aimed at reducing the cost of constructing power plants could especially benefit nuclear plants, which are costly to build. Policies that reduce the cost of fossil fuels could benefit natural gas plants, which are inexpensive to build but rely on an expensive fuel. The report provides projections of the possible cost of power from new fossil, nuclear, and renewable plants built in 2015, illustrating how different assumptions, such as for the availability of federal incentives, change the cost rankings of the technologies.
Pages: 108
Date: November 13, 2008