The hidden costs of electricity: externalities of power generation in Australia

Source: ATSE
"The key finding of this review conducted by the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering is that a greater focus on externalities, preferably quantified in monetary terms, will help Australia to gain maximum social and environmental benefit from the portfolio of electricity generating technologies it will use for meeting emission reduction targets. Externalities are environmental and social costs that are not accounted for in the market price of electricity. Existing methods for valuing externalities do give an idea of their relative costs for different technologies in Australia but some major gaps and uncertainties need to be resolved through further work, preferably via collaboration with international centres of expertise."