According to U.S. Energy Information Administration data, the cost of building and operating a new solar thermal power plant over its lifetime is greater than generating natural gas, coal or nuclear power. It costs a conventional coal plant $100, on average, to produce a megawatt-hour of power, but that figure is $261 for solar thermal power, according to 2011 estimates. The figures do not account for incentives such as state or federal tax credits that can impact the cost.
PBS had a program on ENERGY a couple years back — I wish I could find it. The conclusions from it were stunning:
10% of all energy worldwide was wood and dung burning primarily in 3rd world countries and not likely to change.
Wind and solar useage despite all the hype and investment was pathetically low like 3% and not expected to grow even in best case scenario beyond beyond like 6%.
They kept talking about bringing fossil fuel useage down from like 50% to 25% — but what would fill the gap since wind/solar are so limited.
Their answer was stunning — hydroelectric and nuclear energy had to grow significantly to fill the gap.
These loons who spent a generation condemning the damming of rivers and building of nuclear power plants are now being forced to embrace them.
And yet the program following that one was about the salmon runs in the Northwest as they called for all the hydroelectric plants to be eliminated and rivers returned to nature.