Back in the 1970s, most of us felt confident that, contrary to Eisenhower's statement about nuclear power would give us "electricity too cheap to meter", people saw that nuclear power was the most expensive option. Well, it still is plus there still is no safe and practical way to separate the waste and decommissioned plants from the environment for the needed time, adding to financial and environmental costs.

The main things that have changed since the 1970s in energy is that the costs of conventional fuels has increased while the cost of producing energy from alternative sources has decreased.

I was told the proposal to promote "clean" nuclear energy amounted to an $8 billion government subsidy. As nukes aren't built by hobbyists in their garage, we are talking about a corporate handout. It's sounding all too similar to solving the housing financial crisis by giving handouts to the banks rather than helping the people who can't afford to pay their mortgage.

With the current price, yes RETAIL price, of PV solar panels at about $2/watt, if I had an extra $8 billion to toss around, I would give it to people who want to put solar panels on their roof. Buy the panels for them. They would just need to install them and supply the "other pieces" such as grid-tie inverters.

Let's do the math. If a panel has a peak power rating of X, an average of X/4 watts will be produced. This is, of course, because sunlight is not available all the time. With a nuke, somewhere around .8 * X is more typical. That means we need a bit over three times as many watts of solar panels to equal the same nuke capacity.

At $2 a peak watt, $8 billion buys the equivalent of more than a 1000 MW nuke plant in PV panels. Clean energy free of operating costs and no dangerous waste to deal with.

Let's say the government gift is 2000 watts of PV panels. (I picked that because that is what is on my roof.) Even at current prices, we would be giving homeowners a $4000 gift. If it cost another $4000 for the grid-tie inverter, panel mounts, wire and installation, we are giving the consumer a 50% price break and creating lots of new jobs installing such systems.

Can the consumer afford that $4000? First, let's look at the benefit. This system should produce about 12KWh per day or about 4400KWh/year. I don't know what electric rates look like in the U.S. these days (I live 100% off-grid in Nicaragua now) but even at $.10/KWh, that's over $400/year in saved electricity costs. With current PV panels having 20 or more year guarantees, the system will easily pay back both the homeowner investment and the cost of the government gift.

Electric utilities invest in new generation capacity. It's a big, up-front capital cost. With large generation facilities, such as a nuclear plant, that investment needs to be made many years before there is any power generated. Additionally, with a large centralized generation facility, there are substantial enhancements necessary to the electrical grid to deliver that power to where it is to be used.

If the utilities could incrementally add capacity and do it in such a way that the power could be delivered to the user without grid enhancement costs, it would be a big win for them. Enter a win-win situation. Electric utilities could finance homeowner costs and would get the added generation capacity where it is needed. The homeowner would then pay off the system as money saved on their electric bill.

Many will say that a big disadvantage of solar is that it is not 24/7. The reality is that this is an advantage. Electric grid loads peak during daylight hours. That is because businesses tend to be operating during daylight hours. In addition, peak air conditioning load is when the sun is shining. Contrast this with nuclear plants that must operated at a fixed output 24/7.

Can this happen? It all depends the people. If they speak up and ask for this sane solution, it could happen. Otherwise, the U.S. government is going to give $8 billion to a few very large corporations and both your tax bill and your electric bill will go up. It's up to you.