Let's Not Deceive the Poor World With an Expensive Green Illusion

Renewable energy's promise of lower electricity bills has a very long way to go before it can be met

- BJORN LOMBORG is visiting fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Ask families in Germany and the UK what happens when more and more supposedly cheap solar and wind power is added to the national mix, and they will tell you by looking at their utility bills: power gets far more expensive. This defies everything we're being told. Green energy is supposed to be incredibly cheap. But we're not hearing the real story.

The idea that power should get cheaper as we get more green energy is only true if we exclusively use electricity when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing. But modern societies need power round-the-clock. When there is no sun and wind, green energy needs plenty of back-up, often powered by fossil fuels. This means that we pay for not one, but two power systems. And as the back-up fossil fuel power sources are used less, they need to earn their capital costs back in fewer hours, which can raise the cost of power further.

This means the real costs of solar and wind energy are far higher. One study in China showed that the real cost of solar power on average was twice as high as coal, while a peer-reviewed study of Germany and Texas showed solar and wind power to be many times more expensive than fossil fuels.