Sure. Thank you for the questions.
I see two questions, one about the relative costs of energy from nuclear and other sources, and the second about cost management in the context of the nuclear sector itself and refurbishments and things of that kind.
To answer in terms of the first element, yes, the cost of nuclear energy would be amortized over the full lifetime of the facility in question. The low cost of electricity from nuclear in Ontario, for instance, is actually a benefit of that kind of long-standing nature of the plants that exist.
I think Ontario would have to speak for itself in terms of the planning it did in deciding to proceed with the refurbishments, but I think when it looked at that, it said that a big upfront capital investment was made in these projects, and that upfront capital investment is largely amortized at this point, so a refurbishment allows us to continue to extend the life of those plants and yield a continued benefit in terms of low-cost power for Ontarians from these existing facilities. That's part of what drives the lower cost.
Around the question of why refurbs are happening at this particular time, when you look at the total lifetime operation of a nuclear facility, there is a point in which a refurb is required, and that's considered in the overall life-cycle costs of that project. A 25-year time frame to a refurbishment is one that's reasonable and in fact is something that would be required to ensure the facility continues to perform efficiently and safely over the long term.
In terms of the cost of other forms of electricity generation, I think it's important that, as you note, the costs of various forms of renewable electricity have actually been declining rapidly in recent years, and they are, to some degree, location dependent. In Ontario, for solar, the cost of 50¢ is based on existing power purchase arrangements and feed-in tariff programs. If you were to do an auction for new solar now, it would likely come in at a significantly lower cost. On that basis, and I think globally when we look at numbers that come from the International Energy Agency, IEA, and the Nuclear Energy Agency working together, the life-cycle costs of nuclear remain competitive on a global basis with those costs of renewable energy looked at on a long-term basis.
The choices will be quite location specific. If you live in an area that receives a high degree of solar input, then solar may well be a cheaper option for you in combination with other forms of electricity. In other areas, nuclear may well be the best prospect. It really depends on looking at the specific context of the type of electricity you're looking to generate and the resources you have to draw from, and making a decision on that basis as to which is the best option to proceed with.
In respect specifically to the cost of nuclear, I think it is true that nuclear projects in recent years—or at least in the past decade or so—have faced significant cost overruns in various places, and that's been a challenge to public confidence in the nuclear sector. Interestingly, in respect of the Canadian technology, if we look at more recent new build projects done internationally with Canadian technology, both Qinshan reactors in China were built on time and on budget in the mid-2000s, as was the facility in Romania. There is the capacity to effectively manage these projects and to manage them on time and on budget.
In terms of both the refurbishments in Ontario and the management of the nuclear waste exercise in Canada at large, getting those projects done on time and on budget will be very important to future confidence in the nuclear sector. In order to preserve that confidence, I think organizations like OPG are very conscious of the need to actively manage those costs and to manage within the budgets that have been allocated.