Full Title: Renewables are Driving up Electricity Prices: Wait, What?
Author(s): Nancy Pfund and Anand Chhabra
Publisher(s): DBL Investors
Publication Date: March 1, 2015
Full Text: Download Resource
Description (excerpt):
Has increased reliance on renewable energy in the United States meant expensive electricity in the United States? This question has pervaded debates on renewables and fossil fuels, and this paper sheds light on this critical issue, including a look at the top and bottom 10 renewable states. Determination of the top 10 and bottom 10 states here is based on share of total electricity generated from all renewable sources. The top 10, therefore, includes states like South Dakota, which has significant wind generation, as well as states like California, which has significant solar generation. It reveals that states with the greatest share of electricity generation from renewable sources have often experienced average retail electricity prices that are cheaper than both the national average and also states with the smallest share of electricity generation from renewable sources.
In 2013, U.S. states generated electricity from renewable sources at a variety of different levels. And yet, as the graph below demonstrates, greater generation from renewables did not mean skyrocketing electricity prices. In fact, states generating more electricity from renewables often experienced average retail electricity prices well below states producing less electricity from renewables.