"Due to the larger magnitude of solar PV power output fluctuations relative to those of wind at time scales shorter than approximately 31⁄2 hours, the costs of large scale solar PV integration are likely to be larger than those of wind."
Carnegie Mellon Study: Large Scale Solar vs. Large Scale Wind Power
"Solar Electric Energy demand has grown consistently by 20-25% per annum over the past 20 years. This has been against a backdrop of rapidly declining costs and prices.
"This decline has been driven by a) increasing efficiency of solar cells b) manufacturing technology improvements, and c) economies of scale. The photovoltaic solar industry now globally generates around $10bn revenues. This includes the sale of solar modules, its associated equipment and the installation of those systems. In 2001, just under 350 Megawatts of solar equipment were sold to add to the solar equipment already generating clean energy."
Solar Energy Industry Statistics: Growth
"For nuclear power, the modernization is intended to produce dramatic differences: plants that will run more than 90 percent of the hours in a year and last for 60 years or longer. The ones in service today ran only about 60 percent of the time when they were new and were assumed to have only a 40-year life. But utilities are already signing long-term contracts for large solar generators, and wind turbines are being erected at an unprecedented rate. Those alternatives operate fewer hours of the year, but with no burden of fuel cost or fuel-disposal problems the price of power they produce could be low enough to squeeze nuclear power out of the mix."
Can Nuclear Compete? - Scientific American~=~
