by Bjorn Borg, Jan 2, 2025 in ClimateChangeDispatch
Green Electricity Really Does Cost A Bundle
As nations use more and more supposedly cheap solar and wind power, a strange thing happens: Our power bills get more expensive. [emphasis, links added]
This exposes the environmentalist lie that renewables have already outmatched fossil fuels and that the “green transition” is irreversible even under a second Trump administration.
The claim that green energy is cheaper relies on bogus math that measures the cost of electricity only when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing.
Modern societies need around-the-clock power, requiring backup, often powered by fossil fuels. That means we’re paying for two power systems: renewables and backup.
Moreover, as fossil fuels are used less, those power sources need to earn their capital costs back in fewer hours, leading to even more expensive power.
This means the real energy costs of solar and wind are far higher than what green campaigners claim. One study shows that in China the real cost of solar power on average is twice as high as that of coal.
Similarly, a peer-reviewed study of Germany and Texas shows that solar and wind are many times more expensive than fossil fuels.
Germany, the U.K., Spain, and Denmark, all of which increasingly rely on solar and wind power, have some of the world’s most expensive electricity.
The International Energy Agency’s latest data (from 2022) on solar and wind power generation costs and consumption across nearly 70 countries shows a clear correlation between more solar and wind and higher average household and industry energy prices.
In a country with little or no solar and wind, the average electricity cost is about 12 cents a kilowatt-hour (in today’s money).
For every 10% increase in solar and wind share, the electricity cost increases by more than 5 cents a kilowatt-hour.
This isn’t an outlier; these results are substantially similar to 2019, before the effects of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
