LOCATION/TYPE

NEWS HOME

[ exact phrase in "" • results by date ]

[ Google-powered • results by relevance ]



Archive
RSS

Add NWW headlines to your site (click here)

Get weekly updates

WHAT TO DO
when your community is targeted

RSS

RSS feeds and more

Keep Wind Watch online and independent!

Donate via Paypal

Donate via Stripe

Selected Documents

All Documents

Research Links

Alerts

Press Releases

FAQs

Campaign Material

Photos & Graphics

Videos

Allied Groups

Wind Watch is a registered educational charity, founded in 2005.

News Watch Home

EPE true costs 

Credit:  Silver City Sun-News, www.scsun-news.com 2 February 2012 ~~

You’ve heard the radio ads and seen the full-page print ads. El Paso Electric touting the solar power from the Santa Teresa and Hatch arrays. You can even see the daily power output on EPE’s website.

But EPE never mentions that the Santa Teresa power costs EPE 12.745 cents per kWh, and from Hatch, the solar power costs 11.9 cents per kWh. That’s almost 2.75 times the “base fuel” cost of 4.396 cents per kWh. After applying this month’s Fuel & Purch. Power Cost Adjustment of minus 1.04 cents per kWh, that solar power is over 3.5 times what EPE pays for fuel. Bluntly, EPE is paying more for the wholesale power from solar arrays than they are charging residential customers for retail power. The only reason EPE has to buy triple-cost solar power is the NM Renewable Portfolio Standard.

What would you say if the philosophy of the NM RPS was applied to other industries? How about a law saying that NM farmers have to hire certain classes of workers, pay them three times the prevailing wage, and these workers only work when they want to, not when the farmer needs them? The farmer still has to get the harvest done on time, so he has to have other workers on standby for when these “special workers” take their unscheduled breaks. Well that’s wind and solar power in a chile pod, compliments of the NM RPS. And if you think that solar and wind is replacing coal power, it’s not. It’s replacing the most expensive fuel source: natural gas. Tell your legislators that we need to repeal this ridiculous law.

PAUL LINDSEY

Las Cruces

Source:  Silver City Sun-News, www.scsun-news.com 2 February 2012

This article is the work of the source indicated. Any opinions expressed in it are not necessarily those of National Wind Watch.

The copyright of this article resides with the author or publisher indicated. As part of its noncommercial educational effort to present the environmental, social, scientific, and economic issues of large-scale wind power development to a global audience seeking such information, National Wind Watch endeavors to observe “fair use” as provided for in section 107 of U.S. Copyright Law and similar “fair dealing” provisions of the copyright laws of other nations. Send requests to excerpt, general inquiries, and comments via e-mail.

Wind Watch relies entirely
on User Funding
   Donate via Paypal
(via Paypal)
Donate via Stripe
(via Stripe)

Share:

e-mail X FB LI TG TG Share


News Watch Home

Get the Facts
CONTACT DONATE PRIVACY ABOUT SEARCH
© National Wind Watch, Inc.
Use of copyrighted material adheres to Fair Use.
"Wind Watch" is a registered trademark.

 Follow:

Wind Watch on X Wind Watch on Facebook

Wind Watch on Linked In Wind Watch on Mastodon