Alternate Energy hikes your electric rates

The cost of  providing electricity to your home is largely paying off the poles, wires, and generators. The cost of wages and fuel is small compared to the monthly mortgage payments on the electric company's plant and equipment.  As demand increases, electric companies build more generating plants to carry the load.  These facilities are expected to last 40 years, and the financing arrangements reflect this.  They build a small excess capacity to carry the load after a single plant breaks down, or a surge in demand from a sudden heat wave or cold snap.  Since the main cost of providing electricity is paying down the mortgage on the electric plants,  the utilities are careful not to build more plants than are needed.   And the only thing that saves the utilities money, is a reduction in needed generating capacity.  They have to pay the mortgage on the electric plants whether the plants generate electricity or not. 
   And so, along come enthusiastic greenies, offering solar electric power to the utilities for inflated cost, typically twice the retail cost.  Only, the solar electricity is not available while the sun is down, for obvious reasons.  So, the utility has to build and pay for just as much generating capacity as before, to keep the lights on after dark.  In short, buying "alternate" energy merely raises the utilities costs, it doesn't save them money, it costs them more money.  Solar is never going to generate anything after sundown. 
  Same goes for wind.  We have known this since sailing ship days.  Some times the wind goes away and stays away.  Which means the utility still has to pay for the generating capacity to carry the load when the wind doesn't blow.  Again the wind people sell juice at about twice the retail rate.  The utilities are forced to buy it by law. (They wouldn't touch it otherwise).  The "alternate energy" costs the utility money that it wouldn't ordinarily spend. 
   In short, "alternate" energy merely raises the cost of electricity.  If the greenies get their way, capacity will be reduced to the point where blackouts become common.  Us ratepayers will have to purchase home generators ($1000 for enough capacity to keep the furnace running) to avoid having the pipes freeze during a winter blackout.   Up here, that's maybe ten months worth of electric bills. 
  In a nutshell, the greenie push for "alternate energy" is hiking electric rates nationwide.  One reason Great Depression 2.0 is still with us, is high electric rates drive companies to move offshore where the juice is cheaper.