Reply #30: Because the end product we're interested in is electricity. [View All]

[GliderGuider]

The end product we really care about isn't the number of turbines or the number of power plants we have to build, but the MWh of electricity they produce. That's why we try to normalize all inputs to a constant, comparable output - how much xxx input does it take to get 1 MWh of electricity from various technologies?

That's why cost should be a good comparator, because a perfect free market is supposed to unerringly translate all the factors involved into dollars. Unfortunately, there are enough unaccounted/unaccountable factors (like CO2, nuclear waste, loss of biosphere and relative risk levels) that make the comparisons difficult. So we normalize what we can to the desired end product, and argue about the relative values of the rest.