Comparison of cost efficiencies of nuclear power and renewable energy generation in mitigating CO2 emissions.

Abstract

The objective of this study is to compare the cost efficiencies of nuclear power and renewable energy generation in reducing CO2 emissions. To achieve this objective, we estimate the relationship between CO2 emissions and both nuclear power and renewable energy generation in 16 major nuclear power-generating countries, and compare the costs of both energy generation methods in reducing CO2 emissions by the same amount. The results show that, to reduce CO2 emissions by 1%, nuclear power and renewable energy generation should be increased by 2.907% and 4.902%, respectively. This implies that if the current amount of electricity generation is one megawatt-hour, the cost of mitigating CO2 emissions by 1% is $3.044 for nuclear power generation and $7.097 for renewable energy generation. That is, the total generation costs are approximately $1.70 billion for the nuclear power and $3.97 billion for renewable energy to mitigate 1% of CO2 emissions at the average amount of electricity generation of 0.56 billion MWh in 2014 in the sample countries. Hence, we can conclude that nuclear power generation is more cost-efficient than is renewable energy generation in mitigating CO2 emissions, even with the external costs of accidents and health impact risks associated with nuclear power generation.