[Boot Hill]

DB contends:   "You also show the plants capital expenses to build the plant but not the actual fuel costs over the life of the plant."

Incorrect, I covered that in the third paragraph of "Here is an example" and the interest costs of the very expensive solar power plants would exceed the actual fuel costs over the life of the plant. The interest costs of a 30 year, 10 billion dollar loan at 5.3% would be $9 billion dollars greater for a 1000 MW solar plant than for a conventional power plant. The cost of the natural gas for the conventional plant during that same 30 year period would be $8.9 billion dollars. This presumes $1/W for conventional and $10/W for solar. The real cost of a solar power plant would be greater than the $10/W figure I quoted and conventional plants are closer to $0.75/W.

--Boot Hill

[The Red Zone]

So you get them within hollering distance. That's actually better than I'd expect.

[DB]

So you're saying that natural gas costs are 3.4 cents a kilowatt-hour?

Why am I paying about 12+ cents a kilowatt-hour?

[kezekiel]

The real cost of a solar power plant would be greater than the $10/W figure I quoted

Sorry, you are off by over a third. A solar power plant can be built for far less than that.