Clean energy and lowering energy costs

In 2025, energy prices range from approximately $ 400 to $ 500 per month. 40% of energy is produced through natural gas. One in six households struggles to pay for power. Wholesale prices are approximately 40$ per Megawatt hour (MWh). This number rose 7% throughout 2024. The prediction was that energy prices would rise by 2% throughout 2025. Between August 2024 and August 2025, prices increased by 6.2%.
Global electricity demand increased 2.6% in the first half of 2025.
The percentage of renewable energy is comprised of the following numbers: 18% wind, 10% hydroelectric, 11% solar, and 1% geothermal. 60% of the United States' energy was sourced in 2023 from biomass. It accounted for 5% biomass waste, 32% biofuels, and 23% wood. Renewable energy accounted for 9% overall. Natural gas comprises 36% of the total energy, and petroleum accounts for 38%. Coal and nuclear account for 9% of total electric production.
The three cheapest energy sources per unit of electricity include: onshore wind, 24-75$, Solar 25-96$, and gas combined cycle 39$-101$. Coal is the most expensive energy source, costing between and 68$-166$.
Other environmentally or economically produced energy production includes offshore wind (however, it is expensive), which costs between 72-140$ per unit on average. Offshore wind can be produced more safely without taking up valuable land, can be put in more places, and does less damage to the environment and ecosystems.
According to this data and information, I make the following recommendation. If the max capacity is to be increased at some point, producing and building offshore wind will be necessary. However, it is one of the more expensive types of energy, which means that building tons may not lower electricity prices in the beginning. Over time, it will significantly lower prices, however. The cheapest and most effective energy sources include onshore wind and solar. These do require specific environments/land and a startup cost. Solar in particular requires storage. I recommend that we increase the amount of onshore wind and solar by a significant amount to lower prices. At a certain point, producing more energy will be difficult, and when that happens, building offshore wind is the right call. It has less impact; however, it is significantly more expensive. I recommend that more energy sources, especially these sources, be produced to lower quickly rising energy costs. The total energy production in 2024 was 4.31 million MW. In 2023, the total production was 4.18 MW. To decrease energy prices, the total increase must match the 2023 increase in 2025, up to 4.44. By 2026, it must be increasing even more to 4.65MW or higher. This should help with energy prices and help America.
The United States is 100% energy independent; however, it should increase its clean energy production because climate change is real. This increase in energy production should be 80%-150% of the total increase. Hopefully, we can decrease oil and coal production to help eliminate carbon pollution.
References
Horsley, Scott. “Electricity Prices Are Climbing More Than Twice as Fast as Inflation.” NPR, 16 Aug. 2025, www.npr.org/2025/08/16/nx-s1-5502671/electricity-bill-high-inflation-ai
EnergyNow. “EIA Sees Higher U.S. Wholesale Power Prices in 2025.” EnergyNow.com, 27 Jan. 2025, https://energynow.com/2025/01/eia-sees-higher-u-s-wholesale-power-prices-in-2025/#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20Energy%20Information%20Administration%20has%20forecast,EIA%20said%20in%20a%20report%20on%20Monday
U.S. Energy Information Administration. Electric Power Monthly: Table 5.6.A. Average Price of Electricity to Ultimate Customers by End-Use Sector, by State (August 2025 release). U.S. EIA, https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a. Accessed 5 Nov. 2025.
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/us-energy-facts/ mla citation
U.S. Energy Information Administration. “U.S. Energy Facts Explained.” U.S. EIA, https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/us-energy-facts/data-and-statistics.php. Accessed 5 Nov. 2025.
Ember. Global Electricity Mid-Year Insights 2025. 2025. https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/global-electricity-mid-year-insights-2025/#:~:text=Global%20electricity%20demand%20grew%20by,fell%20marginally%20(%2D0.3%25). Accessed 5 Nov. 2025.
Bellefontaine, Ryan. “Ranked: The Cheapest Sources of Electricity in the U.S.” VisualCapitalist, 6 Aug. 2024, decarbonization.visualcapitalist.com/the-cheapest-sources-of-electricity-in-the-us/.