From: ChemE Stewart * OOPS DEFAULT * http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2015/12/15/nrg-ivanpah-faces-chance-of-default-PGE-contract
Just to avoid any wrong implications, Stewart - any default would be a bookkeeping adjustment for Google’s tax purposes. Solar is growing rapidly in Cal. and it will be the lowest cost energy option by the end of next year, or sooner if natural gas prices return to historical norms. Google Swanson's law. Compare that to a close nuclear plant to you. TVA estimated this beauty would cost 2 billion when it started in 1973, and it ended up at 6.5 or more depending on how one accounts for the interest payed during the long delay, since it is not yet running. (for 1.1 GW) http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/local/story/2015/oct/23/nrc-grants-operating-license-watts-bar-unit-2/332065/ According to the Solar Electric Power Association, in 2014 California had installed 4.3 GW… but that has increased to 11.5 GW today and should go to 15 GW by the end of 2016. Compared to the installed cost of new nuclear power, this looks like a bargain, even when adjusted for daytime hours :-) The economists look at solar as a long term investment, like a toll bridge. The Golden Gate bridge cost $27 million to build, which sounded outrageously high at the time but now produces revenues of $125 million every year…. Solar power will not be as dramatic a cash cow in a few decades, but there is no refueling cost every 5-6 years… and mirrors tend to last a long time.
