Renewables reduced wholesale power costs by $5.7 billion in Texas
Here's an article talking about how wind and solar have reduced power costs in Texas.
Interesting bit - in 2002 wind produced less than 1% of the electricity in Texas. Fifteen years later wind is producing over 17%.
There is a lot to chew on in The Economic Value of Renewable Energy to Texas, a new report by the Wind Solar Alliance. In addition to numbers on jobs, reduced pollutants and projected numbers for economic development, there are also figures for revenues to local governments and landowners, all in the cornucopia of economic benefits brought by these two resources.
However, perhaps the most interesting thing in this report – which represents the latest joint effort of the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) and the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) – are the numbers on how wind, and to a lesser degree solar, are bringing down wholesale power prices and making them more stable.
This speaks to not only how renewable energy is ushering in a new era of super-cheap electricity, but also provides the secret to how wind and solar will increasingly drive more expensive and uncompetitive conventional power plants off the grid in wholesale power markets.
Zero marginal cost
The fundamental magic of this, as detailed in the report, is the phenomenon of zero marginal cost. Because wind and solar have no fuel cost, low operations and maintenance costs and do not suffer the wear due to ramping that thermal generation does, it’s pretty much the same cost to the plant whether it is generating power or not.
As such wind and solar bid into wholesale power markets at very low cost, and are usually dispatched first.
And then there's this little tidbit for those that claim that wind is just a minor part of a natgas support system >>>
It is important to note that the zero marginal cost of wind and solar generation will not discriminate between types of plants, knocking off whatever plants are the most expensive and must run the most to pay off their loans. This is why much of the 110 GW of gas plants planned for the United States may become stranded assets, if utilities and developers insist upon building them.
https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2018/11/06/renewables-reduced-wholesale-power-costs-by-5-7-billion-in-texas/