The truth about renewable energy: Inexpensive, reliable, and inexhaustible

We’ve all heard the common myths about renewable energy: It’s expensive; it can’t be relied upon; there just isn’t enough of it to meet our energy needs. But as technological advances and plummeting costs drive explosive growth — U.S. installed wind capacity has grown sevenfold to nearly 47 gigawatts in the last seven years — real-world experience is shattering long-held assumptions every day. Even ardent supporters of renewables may be surprised by what we’re learning.

Renewable energy actually reduces electricity prices for businesses and consumers. A new analysis [PDF] conducted by Synapse Energy Economics on behalf of Americans for a Clean Energy Grid found that adding more wind power to the electric grid could reduce wholesale market prices by more than 25 percent in the Midwest region by 2020

Infrastructure to connect renewable energy is a great investment. Synapse found that new transmission to connect more zero-fuel-cost renewable energy would save customers more than double the cost of building it.

Integrating variable renewable resources is easier and cheaper than we thought.

America has far more than enough renewable energy resources to meet its entire electric demand.

The only remaining barriers to achieving such massive increases in renewable energy use are a lack of understanding and a lack of political will.