Studies Show That the Move to Renewables Will Save Consumers Money

We have, over the past couple of weeks, written about the impact of the rapid growth renewables, particularly, rooftop solar, on the economic outlook for electric utilities. First we described the downgrade, by Barclay’s investment bank of the entire sector based on fears of a downward spiral, precipitated by massive grid defection among residential customers.

A follow-up piece described a report by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, which had a considerably less dire tone, suggested the changes in electricity would like be relatively modest over the next twenty years.

Both of these reports were focused specifically on rooftop residential solar, or what the utilities call distributed generation. Utility scale renewables projects are another important piece of the puzzle and one that, according to a press release by the World Resources Institute (WRI), will have a beneficial impact on both utilities and consumers.

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RP Siegel, author and inventor, shines a powerful light on numerous environmental and technological topics. He has been published in business and technical journals and has written three books. His third, co-authored with Roger Saillant, is Vapor Trails, an eco-thriller that is being adapted for the big screen. RP is a professional engineer – and a prolific inventor, with 50 patents, numerous awards, and several commercial products. He is president of Rain Mountain LLC and is an active environmental advocate in his hometown of Rochester, N.Y. In addition to Justmeans, he writes for Triple Pundit, ThomasNet News, and Energy Viewpoints, occasionally contributing to Mechanical Engineering, Strategy + Business, and Huffington Post. You can follow RP on Twitter, @RPSiegel.