Chart of the Day

The Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration publishes an "Annual Energy Outlook" containing projections and analysis of US energy supply, demand, and prices. The 2010 edition was released in May and includes predictions of the average national levelized costs for various electric generating technologies in 2016. (For the curious, levelized costs "represent the present value of the total cost of building and operating a generating plant over its financial life, converted to equal annual payments and amortized over expected annual generation from an assumed duty cycle.")

The non-profit Institute for Energy Research graphed the results (post updated with 2010 figures):


source: IER via DOE/EIA data

Renewable energy simply simply isn't superior to fossil fuels. And when and if it becomes better, the market will ensure renewables are available.

Uh, where have I heard this before? Oh yeah--this blog, several times over.

No wonder the White House's policy is 'renewables for thee but not for me.'