So the Clean Energy experts were right: not only is wind power the cheapest form of energy in the United States, but it's going to save energy consumers money - starting this winter.
In a major, major (did I say major?) development in Colorado today, XCel energy, the state's largest utility, announced that its customers who participate in its "WindSource" program - that is, people who chose to buy conventional wind power instead of alternative energy sources like coal and natural gas - will save about $10 a month over the old-school, fossil-fool energy consumers.
From today's Denver Post:
Customers of Xcel Energy's Windsource wind-energy program soon will have more to brag about than their environmental ethic.
Namely, lower bills.
More big news, below the fold.
The 29,000 Colorado Windsource participants who now pay as much as $6 more a month for "green power" soon will pay up to $10 less than their neighbors who use conventionally generated electricity.
Higher natural-gas prices are driving this abrupt change in the economics of Xcel's voluntary wind-power purchase plan.
Yeah, I swapped "conventional" and "alternative" in my description. Comes the revolution an' all.
I believe this could be the first place in the U.S. where utilities are charging less for wind power than for power that comes from burning stuff (anyone out there can check this?).
The most amazing thing about this news is that it's consistent with years of studies - by the U.S. Department of Energy, by the wind power trade association, by energy NGO's - that consistently predicted that wind power was not only a hedge against volatile natural gas prices (and, increasingly, volatile coal prices) in the U.S., but that it would eventually be cheaper than those old behomoths.
They were all right - every last one of them. Wind is a fully mature technology with fixed fuel costs (i.e. free).
Word on the street is there will be a rush on wind power in Colorado, but there's a problem. And this is the hard part: XCel is, still, a utility. And in America, utilities, for the most part, HATE Clean Energy - it's smaller, more distributed around the country, more efficient, cleaner, and doesn't involve building giant, manly, vroom-vroom baseload energy wasters - er, generation stations - that need bazillions of dollars and fancy engineering plans and permits and political muscles the size of Ah-nold.
So XCel is already hedging, saying they may want to raise wind power rates, or that they might not have enough wind power for everyone. They conveniently forget to mention that they've been fighting to avoid obeying the new Colorado law that requires they buy more energy from wind farms, and would rather build new coal-fired power plants:
... proponents of a renewable energy standard decided to ask voters directly through a ballot initiative, where it ultimately found success.
The measure has faced consistent and strong resistance from electric utility companies, particularly Xcel Energy. Facing the possibility that voters could force the utility to use more renewable energy, Xcel Energy mounted a full-scale attack campaign in the weeks prior to election day.
Worse still, the White House has seen the writing on the wall, and is getting ready to gut funding for renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, even while Bushco lavishes massive subsidies on the coal, gas, and nuclear industries:
DOE Expected to Slash Budget for Wind, Geothermal, CSP Solar
September 27, 2005
Washington, DC [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] Rumors have been circulating among those with an ear to energy issues in Washington, DC, that deep budget cuts are likely in a wide range of renewable energy technologies as the government seeks a way to pay for all its expenditures without increasing revenue.
But we can win this one. We have the cheaper alternative. We have the cleaner alternative. We have an actual energy crisis caused not by a lack of fuels, but by a lack of imagination, a lack of diversity in our energy mix, and by the massive inertia of 100 years of over-reliance on a technology that essentially amounts to burning rocks.
Calling all Kossacks: call your utility today and let them know you want to save money on your energy bill, too - ask them to sell you wind power. Call your Congressdude/dudette and demand that they not target funding for Clean Energy as they slash the budget to pay for IrakatrinataxcutHalliburtongate.
The American energy revolution continues apace ...