ABSTRACT
Higher oil prices made many new technologies cost-competitive with conventional means of electricity production. The world-wide oil glut has resulted in lower, not higher, oil prices, a situation which is expected to continue through the end of the decade. Cost and penetration projections for new power generation technologies have turned out to be overly optimistic and, in some cases, off the mark. The net effect of these developments is that the cost competitiveness hurdle dates for many new energy technologies have been postponed from the decade of 1980s to 1990s and beyond. It was in the midst of this period of great uncertainty and high cost of capital that utilities across the country began to re-evaluate their future energy resource options. The cost goals are shown as a band representing an envelope covering the full spectrum of new and evolving technologies.
