nrhinkle

The LCOE (Levelized cost of electricity) is an approximation of the cost in $/MWh of an electricity source. The US Energy Information Administration provides estimates of LCOE in 2012 dollars for plants entering service in 2019 in this table.

Source	LCOE without subsidy	LCOE with subsidy
Conventional coal	95.6
Conventional natural gas	66.3
Advanced nuclear	96.1	86.1
Wind	80.3
Solar PV	130.0	118.6
Hydro	84.5
Geothermal	47.9	44.5

Next-generation small-scale nuclear reactors have a lot of potential. They're a good option for baseload power, because they don't depend on weather conditions and can be scaled as needed.

So, dollar-for-dollar, we can get more out of wind, hydro, and geothermal than we can out of nuclear. Solar photovoltaics though are still quite expensive. Forecasting and reliability are the bigger problem with grid scale adoption of wind and solar power. Geothermal doesn't have those problems, but is currently geographically limited.

EDIT: OK, to answer some of the questions.

• These cost estimates only take into account the capital and operational costs for a particular project over the course of the project lifetime. Essentially, the way the LCOE is calculated is by adding the estimated capital costs (how much it costs to build the plant), estimated operational costs (how much it costs to run the plant), and predicting the total MWh generated over the lifetime of the project. The sum of the costs is divided by the total energy generated to get the cost per MWh.

  External costs are not accounted for in this method, except insofar as they are accounted for by the operational costs. For example with coal, you're indirectly paying for the cost of mining and transporting the coal when you buy it, so that's included. You aren't paying for the costs associated with increased pollution, climate change, etc.

  Most nuclear power plants have short/medium-term on-site storage for nuclear waste. The facilities to handle that are part of the plant's capital cost, and the cost to maintain that storage is part of the operational cost, so that's accounted for. Long-term waste management is not accounted for.

• Subsidies in this table refer only to tax credit subsidies for production or installation of particular sources. Fossil fuels are highly subsidized, but the power plants which use fossil fuels to generate electricity aren't receiving those subsidies directly. In reality, fossil fuels are subsidized at a much higher rate than renewables.

• LCOE doesn't tell you what electricity costs will be at any given time, it tells you the overall average cost for electricity from a particular source. Although most of us pay a fixed rate per kWh on our electric bills, the prices utilities pay to electricity producers is constantly changing depending on demand and available resources. This is related to the issues with solar and wind power only being available at certain times. Certain types of plants are also cheaper to start up and shut down on demand. Wind and solar have little cost associated with coming online/offline quickly, although they also have little predictability. Natural gas turbines can respond very quickly to changes in demand. Coal and nuclear power are slow to respond.

• Just because an electricity source has a lower LCOE doesn't mean it's cheaper everywhere. Geothermal for example, while extremely cheap, is only possible in areas with the right type of volcanic activity in the right place. Transmission is a major source of inefficiency in our grid, so the further your electricity is coming from the less actually gets there. That transmission capacity also has a cost, which isn't reflected in the LCOE. This is one significant benefit of solar PV: it can be installed directly on homes and businesses, almost completely eliminating the transmission losses. This benefit is not apparent just from looking at LCOE.

They do have the garage sales.

I graduated in 2015 with a degree in chemical engineering. I don't work in the aerospace industry, but in my experience safety is deeply embedded in the engineering curriculum and is treated very seriously. ABET (the accreditation board for engineering degrees) has specific requirements for safety and ethics coursework for degree programs to get accredited, and you can't get a professional engineering license without an ABET-accredited degree. My program had a full semester-long course specifically about engineering ethics and safety, which included everything from hazard assessment and inherently safer design principles, to very specific technical safety calculations. Almost every other class had a safety aspect at one point or another too, especially in senior-level design classes where you learn more about how to apply the theory to real-world situations. Every chemical engineer knows of the famous chemical plant disasters, and all engineers know about other high-profile engineering disasters even outside their disciplines.

One way you could help promote getting young people outside? Either free memberships for anybody with a valid student ID (K12 or college), or an extra 5% discount for members with a student ID. I just recently graduated so I wouldn't be eligible, but I've been a member since high school :)

Yeah, this... /u/arturo_lemus can you please post proper proof, with a piece of paper with your username and today's date written on it visible in the picture with your uniform? Right now it's just pics of your uniform, which could actually be anybody's uniform.