Sharon Pillar: Renewables reliable, economical

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is often referred to as insanity. As we enter our 4th consecutive year of wildly escalating electricity prices, it should be clear by now that what Pennsylvania has been doing in terms of energy is simply not working — and in fact, it is getting much worse.

As Ryan M. Yonk noted in his op-ed “Time to get real about renewables” (Dec. 14, TribLive), 83% of U.S. energy came from fossil fuels in 2023. In Pennsylvania, we are overdependent upon one fuel — natural gas — for almost 60% of the state’s electricity generation, followed by nuclear power (32%), coal (5.5%) and less than 4% from other sources such as renewables. And yet in 2025, electricity prices are projected to rise even further in our state, by up to 29%.

The reason for these recent price surges is mainly because our leaders have not worked to diversify our electricity mix. This is a precarious situation, because natural gas pricing is volatile and subject to worldwide market forces that are influenced by geopolitical conflicts (e.g., the war in Ukraine). Prices next year are also predicted to soar because we are not keeping up with electricity demand of data centers, as well as the delays caused by our electrical grid operator, PJM, in adding new energy resources like renewables and storage onto the grid. In fact, there are thousands of solar, wind, and storage plants that have requested permission to build, and only a handful of investors are wanting to build new fossil fuel plants. Why? Because renewables and storage are so much cheaper to build and operate.

Renewable energy like solar and wind currently generates less than 4% of our electricity. The energy from the sun and wind are free, so their primary cost lies in a one-time upfront infrastructure investment. This leads to a very predictable price over a system’s lifetime, which is often 30 years or more.

Solar output is reliable and predictable during specific times of day and year. Wind output is often highest at night, and solar is most efficient during midday, which is often when electricity demand is at its highest. Solar and wind are the cheapest electricity on the grid, and when they’re coupled with energy storage, they produce even more consistent power. Solar is providing cheap power for schools, businesses, homes, and farms that saves them thousands to tens of thousands of dollars each year on utility bills. Why wouldn’t we want to encourage more of that?

And let’s talk government subsidies. Fossil fuels received $7 trillion in subsidies in 2022 alone. That made sense at one time when they were the main options to generate electricity, but these dinosaur plants are no longer economical and it’s time to rethink what the public should be paying for. Should we continue to subsidize wildly fluctuating and dirty fuel sources or start building more low-cost energy for all? Because adding solar and other renewables would help all consumers save up to $1,800 a year.

Renewables proved their reliability during 2022’s Winter Storm Elliot, when natural gas failed us. Nevertheless, do we still need fossil fuels? Yes, they definitely play an important role and will for some time, and we need to keep the most reliable plants and our nuclear fleet operating as efficiently as possible.

However, we need to stop having an all-or-nothing mentality and start building a grid that optimizes the benefits of each of our energy resources to finally benefit all Pennsylvanians.

Sharon Pillar is the founder and executive director of the Pennsylvania Solar Center, a nonprofit organization that works to expand the benefits of solar to all Pennsylvanians.