Paul Dabber writes in the Washington Examiner about the material inflation in U.S. power prices.
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- In most power regions of the country, more power plant capacity, measured in megawatts, is being decommissioned than is being built.
- Wind and solar power plants that are being added run at about 35% capacity factors because they only generate when the wind blows or when it is sunny.
- As a result of this net shrinking of power capacity, wholesale power prices are rising significantly.
The availability of power plants has been shrinking due to environmental regulations being placed on older, primarily coal plants. Not enough power plants are being built to cover for those shutdowns due to federal and local restrictions on new construction. And given most new power plants have been wind and solar, they do not qualify to participate to provide “capacity” since they do not have the capability to be available on demand 24 hours every day.
Read the full article here.
The views and opinions expressed are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of C3.
