56 achieve commercial operation of the generation plant" and fixed operations and maintenance (FOM) are “[a]nnual expenditures to operate and maintain equipment that are not incurred on a per-unit-energy basis.” To restate from the previous section, CapEx costs include the Develop and Assemble ConOps phases and FOM costs include the Operate, Maintain, and Dispose ConOps phases. NREL is the most authoritative USG source for electricity production technology data. NREL’s Annual Technology Baseline (ATB) (NREL, 2022) provides assessments of a range of technologies every year. We use the data published in 2022 and apply their Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) formula to compare electricity production technology costs as uniformly as possible. As described by NREL, “The levelized cost of energy (LCOE) calculator provides a simple way to calculate a metric that encompasses capital costs, operations and maintenance (O&M), performance, and fuel costs of renewable energy technologies.” Our primary divergences from NREL’s calculator are in the consideration of more refined financing inputs. We do not consider the rate on return of equity in our calculations for example, as our baseline scenario assumes Government financing. Different activities have different financing assumptions in the ATB (construction has a different financing rate for example). We apply the same financing rate to each design reference system and all comparison energy technologies. We also assume manufacturing of all activities occur in the U.S. and do not consider cost factors for different locations of work. Finally, we re-state NREL’s assertion that this is a simplified calculation for comparative purposes and that a more detailed analysis to include financing, discounts, and other costs would provide a more holistic look. Calculation NREL calculates LCOE using the following formula: LCOE = {(overnight capital cost * capital recovery factor + fixed O&M cost)/(8760 [hours in a year] * capacity factor)} + (fuel cost * heat rate) + variable O&M cost. When applied to the two design reference systems, each variable is described as follows: • Overnight Capital Cost: CapEx Cost / Power Delivered • Capital Recovery Factor: Capital Recovery Factor,† with a default discount rate of 3% • Fixed O&M Cost: FOM cost / Power Delivered / Lifetime • Capacity Factor: Percentage of the year in which power is generated • Fuel cost: N/A • Heat rate: N/A • Variable O&M cost: N/A††
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTU5NjU0Mg==