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The cost of electricity in the United States is expected to increase by 21 percent over the next 10 years and 51 percent over the next 20 years, and a growing number of families are turning to alternative forms of energy.
The data is from the Department of Energy and was compiled in a Nerdgraph.com chart that shows how every home and business owner that is on the power grid will see electric bills go through the ceiling.
Some of the eye-opening statistics on the chart include:
- Residential customers pay more for electricity than anyone else. The average price for a kilowatt hour of electricity in the United States is 9.28¢ yet the average homeowner paid 11.74¢. In contrast industrial customers paid an average of 6.53¢ a kilowatt hour. Many industrial customers already generate some of their own electricity.
- Your zip code can have a huge effect on your electric bill. Louisiana residents paid only 8.38¢ for a kilowatt hour of electricity while Vermont residents paid 19.97¢ a kilowatt hour – more than twice as much.
- The average residence will pay 17.76¢ per kilowatt hour for electricity in the year 2033. Vermont residents will pay 29.96¢ — almost 30¢ an hour.
Such projections are driving large corporations, homeowners and now farmers to start generating their own electricity. The usage of renewable energies is up 177 percent in the past 10 years.
Farmers are the latest small business people turning to solar panels in order to reduce electricity costs and increase profits.
Farmers Beating Electricity Costs with Solar Panels
Two people who are very aware of constantly increasing electricity rates are Iowa corn and hog farmers Maureen and Alan Jensen. The Jensens have turned to solar panels in an attempt to deal with $1,000 a month electricity bills.
Harness the power of the sun when the power goes out…
“We use a lot of electricity with all the livestock and the grain that we have to handle and we kept seeing the rates go up higher and higher, almost to the point where it’s unaffordable,” Alan Jensen told an Iowa TV station. The couple recently instated a solar array in an attempt to supply part of their own electricity.
“The cost of power keeps going up and as the bills keep getting higher and higher, I think this is the way to go,” Alan Jensen added. Jensen and his wife now own the largest private solar power array in the state of Iowa.
In the years to come more and more small business people may find themselves in the situation Allen and Maureen Jensen were facing — generating their own electricity just to stay in business.
Farmers will be among the first to do so because modern farms use large amounts of electricity. The Jensen farm uses 4,200 kilowatt hours of electricity a month to raise 9,000 hogs and 2,400 acres of corn and soybeans.
In the two months since they installed the solar array, Alan and Maureen Jensen have not paid an electric bill. That means they can take the money they would have sent to the power company and put it in the bank or use it to pay down debts. It also means they have an extra $1,000 a month in income because of the new array.
