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It's instructive to compare this list comparing the carbon intensity of electricity generation by state: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Carbon_Intensity_of_Eletr... to this list of the cost of electricity by state: http://www.neo.ne.gov/programs/stats/inf/204.htm Objectively, electricity costs the most in states that have the lowest carbon intensity of generation, i.e. the highest share of wind and solar. The correlation is off the charts. Any analysis that says that wind and solar are cheaper than fossil fuels that doesn't address this simple, objective fact is a snow job. (The outliers are Washington and Oregon -- because those states use hydropower instead of solar or wind.)


You need to remember that wind and solar (and storage for them) have been getting cheaper at a regular rate. The current total costs include older renewable energy installations that were much more expensive than recently built ones, and future ones will be even more cost efficient.


The article was comparing coal costs vs Solar and Wind. Carbon output from fossil fuels suggests not only coal, but also oil and natural gas.


Coal is much cheaper than oil and comparable to natural gas. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/update/resource_use....


Oil is a very small part of electric generation. Natural gas has gotten a lot cheaper than coal, which is why so many coal plants are being shut down.

More recently, renewable has started to get cheaper than natural gas.




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