This link and article are from today’s WSJ and discuss the rising price of renewable generation.

As long as renewables are used in conjunction with existing generation, their use will result in price decreases (or at least they used to).  However, once they get beyond a critical mass that requires storage installation and large modifications to the transmission system, that benefit goes away.  Solar arrays on a house roof greatly reduce energy costs and the expense of the array can usually be recouped within 10 years.  A 60 MW Solar Array located on a farm will require a significant investment in transmission infrastructure.  A 1 GW nuclear plant built on a previously unused site will occupy the same land area (1.5 square miles) and also require a significant investment in transmission infrastructure, however it will be nowhere near 14 times as much, despite generating about 14 times more energy in a year.  There are economies of scale in the process and the smaller remote renewable facilities cost disproportionately more to interconnect so the energy cost from them is much higher.  If the renewable generation rises above what can be used at the time, battery storage drives the cost through the roof.  

Almost every article written on the subject ignores that reality.

Rich