Historically, electric utility companies built power plants to last 30 years, and those same plants with a little refurbishment are lasting 50 and 60 years, helping to keep electricity prices low in this country despite government regulations that increase the cost of electricity. Those government policies created our renewable energy boom and have resulted in the construction of high-priced electric power plants. For example, according to the Energy Information Administration, a photovoltaic solar power plant produces electricity that is more than twice as expensive as a natural gas combined cycle plant.[ i ] And, according to the New York Times, these plants may not be lasting their expected 25 year lifetime. For example, a solar power plant in sunny California has malfunctioned in just 2 years. The New York Times reported that first, the coatings that protect the solar panels disintegrated and then other defects caused two fires, needing to take the system offline for 2 years. Lost revenues totaled hundreds of thousands of dollars and similar problems are occurring around the globe.[ii]
