Friday, February 14th 2014

From John Hanger’s Facts of the Day:

A new report documents that wind power is pushing down electricity prices in those states with substantial wind generation. Electricity prices actually fell in the top 11 wind power states from 2008 to 2013 but rose nearly 8% in other states.

Wind farms lower electricity prices in a number of ways that are discussed in the linked to paper above. For example, in competitive power markets, wind farms displace the most high-priced power plants and lower the total market price by doing so, creating large savings for all consumers of electricity.

In utility service territories, where consumers are captured monopoly customers, wind power avoids the large fuel costs for coal, gas, oil, and uranium that are otherwise charged dollar for dollar to consumers.

Read more here.