Solar power plants in the Mojave Desert also plans to build other large solar plants in the Mojave Desert. The southwestern United States is one of the world's best areas for insolation, and the Mojave Desert receives up to twice the sunlight received in other regions of the country. This abundance of solar energy makes solar power plants a cleaner alternative to traditional power plants, which burn fossil fuels such as oil and coal. Solar power stations provide an environmentally benign source of energy, produce virtually no emissions, and consume no fuel other than sunlight. Some groups are also encouraging more distributed generation, or rooftop solar. In
Economics of nuclear power plants enrichment facilities, spent fuel repositories, and decommissioning sites — nuclear power proves to be one of the costliest sources of energy". In 2014, Brookings Institution published "The Net Benefits of Low and No-Carbon Electricity Technologies" which states, after performing an energy and emissions cost analysis, that "The net benefits of new nuclear, hydro, and natural gas combined cycle plants far outweigh the net benefits of new wind or solar plants", with the most cost effective low carbon power technology being determined to be nuclear power. Moreover, Paul Joskow of MIT has determined that the "Levelized cost of electricity" (LCOE) metric