It's not fair to compare 1 GW of solar to 1 GW of nuclear power.
A solar plant will produce at full capacity an equivalent of ~5 hours a day.
Nuclear will produce at full capacity for 24/7/365.
A solar plant will produce at full capacity an equivalent of ~5 hours a day.
Nuclear will produce at full capacity for 24/7/365.
it's not the cost of solar you've got to look at, but the cost of solar + batteries to cover the problem with solar: it doesn't work when the sun isn't shining. Now, that's less of a problem for most of California (it's an issue in snowy Tahoe), and grid-sized energy storage can cover the shortfall, but nuclear fission simply doesn't have that problem. It has other problems instead, which make solar the better choice for California, imo, but not everywhere is LA.