{"id":829,"date":"2012-05-17T11:57:32","date_gmt":"2012-05-17T15:57:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/how-much-wind-and-solar-capacity-would-a-billion-dollars-buy.html"},"modified":"2012-05-17T11:57:32","modified_gmt":"2012-05-17T15:57:32","slug":"how-much-wind-and-solar-capacity-would-a-billion-dollars-buy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2012\/05\/how-much-wind-and-solar-capacity-would-a-billion-dollars-buy.html","title":{"rendered":"How Much Wind and Solar Capacity Would a Billion Dollars Buy?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Those <a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/05\/cost-overruns-already-starting-for-georgia-powers-new-nukes.html\"> cost overruns<\/a> so far on the new nukes? How much solar and wind could that money buy?<\/p>\n<p>John Hanger wrote on his Facts of the Day today, <a href=\"http:\/\/johnhanger.blogspot.com\/2012\/05\/913-million-construction-overrun-hits.html\"> $913 Million Construction Overrun Hits Georgia New Nukes: How Much Gas, Wind, Solar Capacity Would That Buy?<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/johnhanger.blogspot.com\/2012\/05\/913-million-construction-overrun-hits.html\"> <img decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b0168eb922aa1970c\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b0168eb922aa1970c-pi.jpg\"    \/><\/a> Comparing the Vogtle initial $913 million cost overrun to the capital costs of gas, wind, and solar plants show just how big these cost overruns can be. The Vogtle $913 million cost overrun by itself could have paid for approximately 1,000 megawatts of natural gas generation; 450 megawatts of wind power; and 330 megawatts of solar power.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Don&#8217;t forget that&#8217;s just the <em>first<\/em> cost overruns on those nukes. When the current Plant Vogtle nukes were built, there were supposed to be four at a cost of $660 million; only two were built, at a cost of $8.87 billion. That&#8217;s a cost overrun of <a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/10\/georgia-power-forges-ahead-with-expensive-nukes.html\"> 1300%.<\/a> How much solar and wind could $8 billion buy?<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Moreover, gas, wind, and solar generation could be up and running in 3-years or less from the first day to the last day of development, as opposed to the 10 years or more needed to build a nuclear plant.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cleantechnica.com\/2012\/01\/12\/city-of-austin-activates-largest-texas-solar-farm\/\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"float:right;border:none;\" class=\"at-xid-6a0120a58214e4970b0168eb922aa8970c\" src=\"\/blog\/images\/6a0120a58214e4970b0168eb922aa8970c-pi.jpg\"   width=\"245\" height=\"167\"  \/><\/a> Austin Energy&#8217;s <a href=\"\/blog\/2012\/03\/30-megawatt-solar-plant-opens-near-austin.html\"> new 30 MW solar farm, for example,<\/a> approved <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kxan.com\/dpp\/news\/local\/Austin_may_land_giant_solar_field\"> beginning of 2009<\/a>, opened end of 2011, and cost <em>less<\/em> than originally projected.<\/p>\n<p>Oh, and solar doesn&#8217;t <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wtoc.com\/story\/15616746\/ga-power-president-addresses-plant-hatch-leak\"> leak radioactive tritium like Plant Hatch<\/a> and won&#8217;t <a href=\"\/blog\/2011\/04\/nuclear-reactor-vogtle-1-at-august-shut-down.html\"> get shut down two days after an NRC clean bill of health like Plant Vogtle.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>-jsq<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Those cost overruns so far on the new nukes? How much solar and wind could that money buy? John Hanger wrote on his Facts of the Day today, $913 Million Construction Overrun Hits Georgia New Nukes: How Much Gas, Wind, Solar Capacity Would That Buy? Comparing the Vogtle initial $913 million cost overrun to the [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,142,14,49,264,265,8,18,2,19,20,104,21,22,32,23,1066,73,289,74,24,3,36],"tags":[8736,8746,8704,8721,8754,8755,8701,8708,8699,8709,8702,8710,12,7,8737,8711,107,8712,8715,8713,8813,8731,8758,8732,8714,108,8700,6,8716],"class_list":["post-829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-cwip","category-economy","category-elections","category-energy-conservation","category-energy-efficiency","category-georgia","category-georgia-power","category-government","category-history","category-law","category-nuclear","category-planning","category-politics","category-pollution","category-renewable-energy","category-retirement","category-safety","category-science","category-security","category-solar","category-transparency","category-wind","tag-activism","tag-cwip","tag-economy","tag-elections","tag-energy-conservation","tag-energy-efficiency","tag-georgia","tag-georgia-power","tag-government","tag-history","tag-lake","tag-law","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-nuclear","tag-planning","tag-plant-vogtle","tag-politics","tag-pollution","tag-renewable-energy","tag-retirement","tag-safety","tag-science","tag-security","tag-solar","tag-southern-company","tag-transparency","tag-valdosta","tag-wind"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-dn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}