Don’t Bomb Iran

OPINION

UPDATE: The 17 MW Yazd solar thermal plant is apparently going ahead, with completion in 2010, says ArabianBusiness.com

Another post about a solar-power addition to a gas-fired power plant in Iran intrigued me. “By further upgrading with a solar field, an additional investment of $138m will result in an additional annual net electricity generation of 156 GWhe/a from solar energy.” The system will pre-heat water to make steam.

Now, nuclear electricity generated by any new nuclear power plant in the USA is estimated to cost US$67 per megawatt hour (6.7 cents per kilowatt hour) by a comprehensive study of nuclear power by Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2003.(This study assumed a 40 year lifetime for a new reactor, and maybe underestimated decomissioning costs). It is likely that Iran’s nuclear power will be more expensive than any new nuclear power in the US. By my calculations, based on the figures above, the solar concentrator will produce electricity for under 3 cents per kilowatt hour - less than half the cost of nuclear power, almost carbon free, with no waste-disposal problem and with no military significance.

I am not an expert in energy economics, but the calculations are quite simple, if the above references are correct:
A. $138 million capital cost (includes maintenance, apparently)

B. 156, 000 megawatt hours in one year (156 GWHe/a)

C. 6,240,000 megawatt hours in 40 years

divide total A.capital cost by C. total megawatt hours and you get:
$22.11 per megawatt hour or 2.2 cents per kilowatt hour.

Apparently, using solar to preheat steam for a gas-fired plant is more economical than just using the solar heat to turn turbines: “By comparison, the investment required for a solar stand alone (SEGS) power plant of the same solar field would be $163m and producing 131 GWhe/a of electricity from solar energy.” Using the same cheap and dirty calculation as above, stand alone costs would be 3.3 cents per kwh… still less than half the price of nuclear electricity.