When Will We See The Savings?

Cities, states, and even countries are now starting to be fully powered by renewables, some even 100% by wind, water, solar, and storage (WWSS). The cost of these technologies has dropped substantially in the last 5 - 10 years. While the environmental benefits over the short and long term are clear, the financial benefits, at least to citizens, are still foggy.

With all the reduced costs to build and generate clean energy, when can everyday people expect to see a reduction in their electric bills? According to the IEA (International Energy Agency), not until 2050 and possibly beyond!

This is due to the financing costs required in order to have these systems built and maintained.

Like previous energy generation systems, governments are turning to developers and investors to build these new, cleaner, cheaper, systems. While the developers and investors of these new systems have to be able to beat the price of the existing systems, which they usually can by 10% - 30%, how much if any of that discount gets passed on to citizens is another question. This is because the investors and governments want to realize a return on their investment and the contracts used to do this are typically in the 15 - 25 year range. Once the contracts have expired and the majority of the costs have already been spent, then it is more likely that savings can be passed on to citizens but still not guaranteed.

Once these systems are built, it is far less likely that governments will offer any type of incentives for people to add solar and batteries themselves, because governments will already have the needed capacity in place. Currently, many governments around the world are offering incentives (up to 80% in some cases) to relieve some of the burden of getting these systems installed.

All this to say that if you live or work in an area with incentives to install renewable energy systems, it will likely be in your best interest to take advantage of those incentives while they last. Even in worst case scenarios where the payback periods are 15 - 20 years, you will still come out on top with a system that is owned debt free and generating free energy rather than hoping that discounts from your power suppliers will be passed on to you.