03-01-2019, 12:45 PM
(03-01-2019, 12:36 PM)EricL Wrote: Electrical costs in Germany have skyrocketed in the last decade as they've switched towards renewables. Germany has the highest electricity costs in the developed world at $0.33 per kwh, compared with just $0.13 in the US.
At the present retail customer level, that is true:
https://www.reuters.com/article/germany-...SL8N1MZ30X
"The price of power in Europe’s biggest economy is politically contentious as production is cheap but state taxes and fees amount to 56 percent of the final cost."
My comments were focused on the cost of generation rapidly diminishing. The government is adding on to that cost, including to fund the build-out of new distribution networks.
Likewise, the cost of natural gas has plummeted with the advent of fracking technology, but you still have to build and maintain pipelines to get the raw input to downstream markets where it can be used as fuel. The overall LCOE cost is still cheaper than coal, which is why no one is building coal plants anymore. The raw input cost of renewable energy generation appears to be going down at a Moore's Law-ish rate, which affects total cost. Yes, the distribution networks have to be built out, and that is cost/maintenance additive, but those costs do not appear to have dissuaded record domestic U.S. investment in solar/wind (it is competitive, and will continue to be more competitive).