{"id":22181,"date":"2014-02-17T21:20:46","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T21:20:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/?p=321877"},"modified":"2014-02-17T21:20:46","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T21:20:46","slug":"why-states-that-produce-more-wind-energy-have-lower-power-prices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/why-states-that-produce-more-wind-energy-have-lower-power-prices\/","title":{"rendered":"Why States That Produce More Wind Energy Have Lower Power Prices"},"content":{"rendered":null,"protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"http:\/\/files.cdn.ecowatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/turbinesawea-150x150.jpeg\" alt=\"Photo credit: Kool Cats Photography\/Flickr Creative Commons\"><\/p>\n<p>The American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) released a <a href=\"http:\/\/awea.files.cms-plus.com\/AWEA%20White%20Paper-Consumer%20Benefits%20final.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">report<\/a> this month with a simple premise&mdash;the more <a href=\"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/2014\/02\/13\/interactive-map-47000-wind-turbines-u-s\/\" target=\"_blank\">wind energy<\/a> available, the lower electricity prices will be.<\/p>\n<p>The organization determined this by comparing the states that get&nbsp;more than 7 percent of their electricity from wind with the rest of the nation. Prices in those states&mdash;Texas, Wyoming, Oregon, Oklahoma, Idaho, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Iowa&mdash;dropped by&nbsp;0.37 percent over the last five years. The rest of the U.S. experienced a&nbsp;7.79 percent increase during the same period.<\/p>\n[caption id=\"attachment_321881\" align=\"alignnone\" width=\"500\"]<a href=\"http:\/\/files.cdn.ecowatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/aweapricechanges.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Graphic credit: American Wind Energy Association\" src=\"http:\/\/files.cdn.ecowatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/aweapricechanges.jpeg\" width=\"500\" height=\"300\"><\/a> Graphic credit: American Wind Energy Association[\/caption]\n<p>&ldquo;During last month&rsquo;s <a href=\"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/2014\/01\/28\/wind-power-millions-polar-vortex\/\" target=\"_blank\">cold snaps<\/a>, we saw very high wind energy output play a critical role in protecting consumers across the country from skyrocketing energy prices,&#8221; said Michael Goggin, senior electric industry analyst at AWEA. &#8220;This study confirms that wind energy is providing that benefit every day.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>AWEA&#8217;s report combines data from 15 others around the country that all point toward lower prices accompanying the deployment of wind energy. For example,&nbsp;Massachusetts reported a three-to-one,&nbsp;benefit-to-cost ratio&nbsp;in its state,&nbsp;producing&nbsp;annual net benefits of about $217 million. A&nbsp;Synapse Energy Economics analysis discovered that&nbsp;large investments in wind energy in the Midwest&nbsp;would reduce power-supply costs by&nbsp;$3 billion to $9.4 billion per year&mdash;between $63 and&nbsp;$200 per customer per year after accounting for the&nbsp;cost of transmission.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No other major source of energy can offer that kind of price stability,&#8221; Goggin said. &#8220;Diversifying our energy mix with zero fuel cost, zero emission wind energy is a win-win for consumers and the environment.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Another study used by AWEA, from Navigant Research showed that&nbsp;72 percent of U.S. residents support wind power.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;With the drastic cost declines over the last few years, wind energy offers consumers a great deal today,&#8221; Goggin said. &#8220;That deal will only get better with time because that low price is locked in for the life of the wind project, as the fuel will always be free.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Visit EcoWatch&rsquo;s&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/category\/renewable-business\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>RENEWABLES<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp;page for more related news on this topic.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/ecowatch.com\/newsletter-signup\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"topnewsbanner12\" src=\"http:\/\/files.cdn.ecowatch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/topnewsbanner12.jpg\" width=\"500\" height=\"120\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,57],"tags":[2892,12198,2913],"class_list":["post-22181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-building-posts","category-leed-news","tag-business","tag-featured-business","tag-renewables"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22181\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leedpoints.com\/green-building-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}