SOCIAL COSTS OF ELECTRICITY GENERATION: WIND AND PHOTOVOLTAIC VERSUS FOSSIL AND NUCLEAR

In: Contemporary economic policy: a journal of Western Economic Association International, Band 8, Heft 3, S. 255-282

Abstract

This paper presents the results of research on the total costs to society of different technologies for electric power production in the Federal Republic of Germany. The analysis views electricity costs from a macroeconomic perspective and includes the internal or private costs as well as the social costs. The focus is on fossil and nuclear fuels as conventional energy sources on the one side and on wind and photovoltaic electricity as examples of renewable energy sources on the other.