§ Mr. TynanTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what recent assessment she has made of the average cost, including commissioning and decommissioning costs, in pence per kilowatt hour, of electricity generated from(a) coal, (b) natural gas, (c) nuclear power, (a) on shore wind, (e) offshore wind, (f) photovoltaic and (g) biomass sources. [R][178315]
§ Mr. TimmsThe Department published estimates of the cost of electricity generation from a variety of low carbon technologies, including commissioning and decommissioning, in a report by the Interdepartmental Analysts' Group (IAG) made in February 2002 available at: www.dti.gov.uk/energy/greenhousegas/index.shtml. The IAG's estimates for 2020 are shown in the following table.
Technology p/k Wh Onshore wind 2.0–2.5 Offshore wind 2.0–3.0 Nuclear 2.6–4.0 Gas 2.3–2.9 The Performance and Innovation Unit at the Cabinet Office also published similar estimates in its 2001 Energy Review. These are available at: www.number10.gov.uk/su/energy/1.html. The following table shows the PIU estimates for new plant in 2020 for nuclear, onshore and offshore wind and gas-fired generation.
1225W
Technology p/k Wh Onshore wind 1.5–2.5 Offshore wind 2.0–3.0 Nuclear 2.5–4.0 Gas 2.0–2.3 For the energy White Paper the Department also commissioned additional external modelling work, which produced the following estimates, including estimated costs of both gas-and coal-fired generation (with and without carbon capture and storage).
Technology p/k Wh Gas 20001 2.2–2.4 Gas 2020 2.1–2.2 Coal 2000 3.6–3.9 Gas (capture and storage) 2000 3.5–3.7 Gas (capture and storage) 2020 3.0–3.2 Coal (capture and storage) 2000 5.7–6.1 Coal (capture and storage) 2020 4.5–4.9 Nuclear 2010 3.4–3.7 Nuclear 2020 2.7–3.0 1In this table, "2000" means plants built in the decade 2000–10, and so on. Work undertaken for the Renewables Innovation Review covering wind generation costs is also available at: www.dti.gov.uk/energy/renewablcs/policy/oxeraresults.pdf. Their estimates for 2010 and 2020 are shown in the following table. This modelling work includes cost estimates for additional investment in the transmission system to handle an increased share of offshore wind generation as well as the cost of providing back-up capacity for intermittent sources of generation such as wind.
2010 2020 Onshore wind 2.7–3.6 2.5–3.2 Offshore wind 4.4–5.5 3.0–4.6 The Renewables Innovation Review also includes a comparison of cost competitiveness of renewable versus conventional energy generation technologies in 2003, estimating current cost of solar photovoltaic electricity under UK conditions for integrated systems at around 37 p per kWh, and current costs of biomass generation in the 5–7 p per kWh range. Costs of individual projects will vary depending on specific circumstances.