Study says renewable energy power plants will overtake natural-gas plants by 2035

“According to the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI), it will be more expensive to run 90 percent of natural-gas fired power plants compared to the costs to build wind and solar farms with storage systems by 2035. The institute analyzed the construction costs, fuel prices, and operation costs of 68 proposed natural-gas power plants across the U.S.

“‘We find that the natural gas bridge is likely already behind us,’ reads the RMI report, ‘and that continued investment in announced gas projects risks creating tens of billions of dollars in stranded costs by the mid-2030s, when new gas plants and pipelines will rapidly become uneconomic as clean energy costs continue to fall.’ . . .

“The report notes that as electricity produced by renewables, which have seen drastic reductions in cost since 2010, continues to become more efficient, demand for gas production will drop. In turn, this will lower the utilization of things like gas pipelines, which means the price of gas that they transfer would go up.”

FULL STORY published September 13, 2019 via Pittsburgh City Paper