The answer is complicated.
Paul Bonifas, director of operations for 9H Research Foundation, which is partnered with the University of Wyoming, told Cowboy State Daily that costs of different sources of energy are calculated using a measurement called the levelized costs of energy (LCOE), which doesn’t tell the full story.
“Levelized cost of electricity tells you the cost of the electricity, but only when that power source is generating electricity,” Bonifas said.
Electricity as a product is unique to any other product produced in that it’s consumed instantaneously to the moment it’s produced.
“What do we want to happen when we flick a light switch? It’s not that we want electricity, it’s that we want electricity all the time,” Bonifas said.
When the wind isn’t blowing or the sun not shining, coal-fired and natural gas-fired power plants increase their output to cover the lack of energy from wind and solar farms. Without this dispatchable power available, the lights don’t stay on.
As more wind and solar farms are built, dispatchable power plants sit idle more often, but they are indispensable because they must be available when they’re needed, he said. This means more infrastructure has to be built to back up intermittent solar and wind power.