If America starts using more renewable energy, what will that do to our electricity prices? While some claim that getting electricity from the sun and wind is cheap and affordable, the real world experience of European countries that have taken this route has proven otherwise. Currently the cost of electricity is about 12 cents per kilowatt hour in the U.S. But in Spain, which has invested heavily in renewables, the cost is about 28 cents per kilowatt hour. Ditto for Germany, a world leader in solar power, and Denmark, a leader in wind power, which both pay nearly three times as much for electricity in their country than we do here in America. Maybe it’s time to power down renewable hype.
Renewable electricity costs shock EU ratepayers
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November 2012 data for residential electricity rates in Europe are Denmark 40 cents per kw-hr, Germany 34 cents per kw-hr, and Spain 26 cents per kw-hr. These are all countries with high levels of unreliable(renewable?) energy sources of wind and solar. Data can be found at http://www.energy.eu/
If you examine U. S. electricity rates by EIA, the November 2012 residential rates are national average of 11.74 cents per kw-hr, California 15.07 cents per kw-hr, and Georgia (where I live) of 10.11 cents per kw-hr. California has one of the stiffest renewable (unreliable) energy portfolios (RPS) requireing 33 percent renewables by 2020. Georgia is smart enough not to fall into the trap of mandating use of unreliable energy sources of solar and wind.
It would be interesting to compare electricity rates for the 29 states and the District of Columbia that have RPS with the 21 states that so far have enough sense not to be suckered into RPS.
James H. Rust, Professor of nuclear engineering