Assessment of Relative Benefit / Impact

Which is the Best Generation Technology?

Electricity generation technologies all have advantages and disadvantages. Renewable technologies such as solar and wind use “free” resources and don’t produce harmful greenhouse gases, but are not always available when needed and require significant amounts of land. Technologies such as coal and nuclear produce electricity in large quantities reliably around the clock, but result in significant greenhouse gases (in the case of coal) and long-term waste disposal considerations (in the case of nuclear).

	Advantage Challenge
Attribute	Coal	Coal w/CCS*	Natural Gas	Nuclear	Hydro	Wind	Biomass	Geothermal	Solar PV
Construction Cost New plant construction cost for an equivalent amount of generating capacity
Electricity Cost Projected cost to produce electricity from a new plant over its lifetime
Land Use Area required to support fuel supply and electricity generation
Water Requirements Amount of water required to generate equivalent amount of electricity
CO₂ Emissions Relative amount of CO₂emissions per unit of electricity
Other air emissions Relative amount of air emissions other than CO₂per unit of electricity
Waste Products Presence of other significant waste products
Availability Ability to generate electricity when needed
Flexibility Ability to quickly respond to changes in demand
* CCS: carbon capture and storage	Advantage Challenge