Study compares true economic costs of power sources

MIT Technology Review : The European Union commissioned Ecofys, a sustainable energy consultancy, to prepare an economic cost evaluation of different energy sources in the EU. Instead of using standard metrics, the company considered “true economic costs.” Those include the cost of the source’s contribution to climate change, pollution, and resource depletion and the costs of creating and operating the plants and related technologies. They also excluded the effect of subsidies, which decrease the apparent cost of relevant energies. The study revealed that while traditional fossil fuels are significantly more expensive than alternative energy sources, solar energy is notably more expensive than wind or hydroelectric. The primary cause for the difference is that most solar panels are built in China, where electricity is carbon-intensive and pollution is a significant problem. Solar panels also contribute more significantly to the depletion of resources than wind and hydroelectric plants.