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Appendix D
Worldwide Electricity Costs for IT with Projections 287

NA=Not available.
C=Confidential.
Sources: United States—Energy Information Administration, Monthly Energy
Review, May 2007, Table 9.9.
Other Countries—International Energy Agency, Energy Prices & Taxes—Quarterly
Statistics, First Quarter 2007, Part II, Section D, Table 21, and Part III, Section B,
Table 18, 2007. The Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) maintains
annual and quarterly time series of this price data that begin with the year 1978
and that also include the most recent quarterly prices. Information on purchasing
this data online from the IEA is available at http://data.iea.org/ieastore/default.asp.

Projections for Worldwide Clean Energy
Cost Comparisons

What are projections for the future? Each of us knows from personal
experience that electricity costs keep going up. However, costs for
renewable/sustainable power generation are projected to go down.
Appendix C, “Comparison of Different Power-Generation Methods,”
ptg
includes information on the continuing significant progress in reducing
costs for electric generation by wind power and solar power. Hydro is
currently the only source of renewable energy making substantial contri-
butions to global energy demand (refer to Table C.1). However, hydro
plants, clearly have limited growth potential and can significantly dam-
age aquatic ecosystems. Other traditional power generation methods
such as nuclear are seeing resurgence. Nuclear, although clean from a
CO2 perspective, will continue to bring up concerns on safe disposable
of spent fuel and overall safety concerns. From a cost per KWH stand-
point, however, nuclear power generation has definite advantages. This
section looks at projections for costs to generate electricity from nuclear,
wind, and solar power.
The global increase in oil and gasoline prices in mid-2008 had a sig-
nificant impact on the global economy. The increase in oil prices had a
positive impact on the market dynamics for clean energy alternatives
like solar, wind, and geothermal. It made those energy alternatives more
attractive financially and spurred research. Of course, the turn-around of
oil prices during the second half of 2008 changed the market again.