Rising costs hinder new power plant builds

Costs of building new power plants in North America have surged dramatically since 2000 and will continue to rise, the IHS CERA Power Capital Costs Index (PCCI) has revealed. According to the index, the costs have escalated by 130% since 2000 and rocketed 69% since 2005.

The IHS CERA PCCI tracks the costs of building coal, gas, wind and nuclear power plants indexed to the year 2000 and is a proprietary measure of project cost inflation, similar to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

According to the index, wind production has shown the largest cost increase, rising 108% since 2000. While gas production has seen a 92% rise and coal has faced a 78% rise in construction costs.

Candida Scott, CERA senior director of cost and technology says despite a recent 1% dip due