A 2015 report by the Institute for Energy Research shows that new gas plants are twice as expensive as existing coal plants and that new wind plants are 3 times as expensive. As a result, wind and solar generation now represent 5 percent of electric generation, up from 2.3 percent in 2010 and 0.5 percent in 2005. ![]() As coal and nuclear power plants are being retired due to the low cost of natural gas and onerous regulations from the EPA and Nuclear Regulatory Commission, natural gas and renewable (wind and solar) plants are replacing them. Generation from natural gas surpassed coal generation in July 2015 and has continued that trend through October 2015 (the last month of available data from the Energy Information Administration). Natural gas now represents 32 percent of electric generation. electricity consumption has stayed relatively flat or even declined.Įlectricity Cost Increases at the National Levelīetween 2005 and October of 2015, residential electricity prices increased by 34 percent, while natural gas prices delivered to electric utilities declined by almost 60 percent and coal prices have remained essentially flat. ![]() This trend has occurred at both the national level and in states like Colorado, and has happened when U.S. This anomaly is caused by the growth of more expensive renewable energy (wind and solar power) and the onerous regulations that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is forcing on electric utilities that require capital investments to be made to existing generators. Over the past 10 years, electricity prices have been going up, while over most of that time, the costs of coal and natural gas-the two major fuel inputs to electric generation-have declined or stayed relatively flat.
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