In consequence nuclear power has its best chance of a revival for a generation and renewable energy is gaining ground as technology is refined and experience grows.

The Cost of Power Generation is a new report published by Business Insights that assesses the current and future case for investment in traditional versus renewable energy. This report analyzes all available data to directly compare the investment case and future prospects of different power generation technologies.

It also examines the results of our proprietary executive survey to provide a unique benchmark of how decision makers within the energy industry forecast the future of power generation and the issues influencing those changes.

Identify the most competitive forms of power generation using this report's detailed analysis of the true costs of power generation.

This new report will enable you to...

- Assess the relative cost benefits of renewable and traditional technologies throughout their lifecycles.

- Identify the key factors that impact on the cost of new energy projects, including structural costs, operational costs, grid extension costs, subsidies and externalities.

- Analyse the impact of increased renewable penetration on the structural costs and capacity of energy networks.

- Predict the effect of changes in fuel prices on the competitiveness of renewable technologies.

- Understand why cost of power estimates have changed over the past three years.

- Benchmark industry executive opinion on the future roles of traditional and renewable energy and the significance of a proposed hydrogen economy.

Key questions answered by this report...

- Which technologies will be the most competitive now and in the next ten years?

- How does market structure affect the pricing and penalisation of green energy?

- What is the cheapest renewable energy source?

- How does geographical location affect cost estimates for power generation technologies?

- What are the weaknesses of traditional fossil fuels in terms of the long-term cost implications?

- When do industry executives forecast renewable energy to take a majority share of electricity production?

- What impact does government policy have on the relative competitiveness of competing power generation technologies?

Evaluate the costs of traditional versus renewable power generation using this report's analysis of historical, structural and lifecycle costs...

Key findings from this report...

- There have been major changes in estimates of capital costs of renewable technologies since 2003, for example, cost estimates for fuel cells were 244% higher in 2007 than in 2003.

- The advance of renewables is likely to be slower than their competitiveness would suggest. Wind generation is becoming more competitive relative to fossil fuels but the global wind turbine manufacturing capacity is far too small to fill the gap today.

- Levelized costs for power generation technologies differ by geography. In California, geothermal and wind power have the lowest costs while Vattenfall data suggests nuclear power is the cheapest source.

- 43% of Business Insights survey respondents consider the proposed hydrogen economy for future electricity generation significant compared to 52% in 2005.

- Solar cells cost could fall below $1/W by 2020 and $0.5/W by 2030, assuming 20% annual solar cell production growth.

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