Would you pay more for wind power?

Question

Hi,

I'm doing my ISU and i have a simple question:

Would you pay more money on your electricity bill for wind power? What about other clean renewable energy?

Answer 1

I might pay slightly more on the expectation that the cost would not go up in the future as fuel prices went up. A number of utilities will offer you a long term fixed price contract for alternative power. People who signed up a few years ago and were paying more then are now paying less than the regular customers because fuel costs went up so much. But I would not just pay more every year for the rest of my life just to be greener than the other people.

Answer 2

NO I would not sorry. I want cheap energy I pay enough for other stuff already and I do not want any more birds harmed than necessary. Do YOU?

Answer 3

I wouldn't pay any more for wind power, or any other kind of green power.  The only long-term, sustainable way for green power to work is for it to be more cost effective than other forms of energy.  This will happen one of two ways:

1) The government puts so many taxes and restrictions on non-green power (or gives leniency and tax breaks to green power) that it becomes more profitable to utility companies to use green power.

2) The cost of digging for more oil, and supplying other non-green energy forms becomes so expensive due to diminishing raw forms of it that it is more profitable for companies to use green energy.

This is really an economics problem.  All businesses will make decisions to make as much profit as possible, even utilities.  When green-power fits into this catagory it will be used.

For me wind power takes up too much land for the amount of energy you get in return.  I prefer nuclear and clean burning waste to energy incinerators (which would also help to take care of our garbage problem).  From the studies I've seen, green energy just isn't efficient enough to power the whole planet.  The only option that might be viable is in the area of solar power.  If engineers can design a more advanced way to capture the sun's power it's possible that it could power the planet, but it would need to be a lot more efficient than what we have today.

One out of the box idea I like is requiring all buildings to have a power generating wind mill and/or solar panels.  This would greatly reduce the need for power from power plants, regardless of their energy source.

Answer 4

Yes, I would and I do.  Would I pay more for other forms of clean renewable energy - well, that depends on what it is and how it compares to what I have now.

Answer 5

Short version: yes.

Real world long version:

In my area, for normal electricity I used to pay about 3.8 cents/kWh, while I now pay about 5.5 cents/kWh for wind.

I moved into my house about a year ago (in Austin, TX), and I keep my old utility bills.  After moving in, I started replacing old light bulbs that burned out with CFLs.  I also bought a wireless print server, which let me finally stop leaving my desktop computer on all the time JUST so I can print (this cost me $80).  At this point, about 2/3 of my lights use CFLs.  Last month I compared my year-ago bills to what I get now, and the net effect has been that my monthly power bill dropped by about $18.  I use about 450 kilowatt hours per month now vs 525-600 a year ago.  Combined with lower natural gas prices, this has cut my monthly bill by about $18.  I did some quick math, and at my power use levels signing up for wind would raise my monthly bill by $9.  So I signed up, now I still pay less per month for wind power then I paid a year ago for dirty power.  Death to coal!

On a side note, I full expect fuel charges to fluctuate wildly with the price of natural gas.  Conventional power could easily go above 6 cents, which has happened in Texas before.  However, the wind power I'm buying will never cost me more then 5.5 cents.  In effect, for the next 20 years, unless I start using alot more electricity, my bill will never go up.

Answer 6

i believe you would pay less for wind power as the supplier would not have to pay tax of fuels (gas, oil, coal).

other renewable sources are;

tidal power

solar power

hydroelectrical dams