[kragen]

It sounds like you confirmed their nuclear capacity factor ("just over 70%") and pointed out that French wind farms have a lower capacity factor (21.1%) than wind farms on average. I don't think that constitutes evidence that they are "completely wrong on [their] numbers".

[hokkos]

Price and capacity factor where completely wrong for wind, also current wind subsidies are about 93€/MWh.

[bildung]

Let's look at actual and current numbers for construction costs, ignoring subsidies:

Wind: "The costs for a utility scale wind turbine range from about $1.3 million to $2.2 million per MW of nameplate capacity installed." http://www.windustry.org/how_much_do_wind_turbines_cost

Nuclear: " Companies that are planning new nuclear units are currently indicating that the total costs (including escalation and financing costs) will be in the range of $5,500/kW to $8,100/kW or between $6 billion and $9 billion for each 1,100 MW plant." https://www.synapse-energy.com/sites/default/files/SynapsePa...

[hokkos]

I was giving actual current feed in tariff for French wind.

[bildung]

Then it's now my turn to call your numbers misleading ;) I don't think you can directly compare the two that way because a) The French government heavily invested in nuclear for strategic reasons, not directly economical ones. The EDF still is essentially state-run. We can't really infer cost arguments from this. b) Practically all nuclear plants in France are decades old, and had many years for recouping initial investments. Current market prices for energy are therefore not a good argument for costs of newly built plants.

If we look at the costs of constructing new nuclear plants (which the article we comment on is about), France is a particularly bad example, with current costs already at $11B for 1600MW of capacity for the Flamanville project. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-edf-nuclear-flamanville/e...

[kragen]

They were citing worldwide capacity factors and prices for wind, not French ones, which I agree are much worse.

[hokkos]

That was not obvious, it was written like a French nuclear with French wind comparison. And also that is misleading because comparing the low capacity factor of French nuclear because it is used for load following and curtailed in summer because it is scaled for winter usage using restive heating. And comparing it to offshore with intermittent power, not dispatchable in the best location, does not make sense. With penetration wind will also be curtailed, and is already happening in china and Germany.