A survey found that Americans want a big power grid and more cheap, clean energy. Wind and solar power, however, are neither cheap nor clean.

Despite public perception that wind and solar power are cheap and clean, their true costs—production, disposal, backup and infrastructure needs, as well as lifespan—are much higher than fossil fuels or nuclear energy, concludes a new report by the Institute for Energy Research, a Washington, D.C.–based NGO think tank focused on energy analysis.

In Brief by Energy Probe

Based on an article by William Rampe, a policy analyst with the Institute for Energy Research (IER), published on Sept. 26, 2025.

Canary Media, an independent climate news source, cites a recent poll that found a majority of “likely voters” support expanding the power grid and increasing access to cheap, clean energy. It notes that 90% of those surveyed (in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Missouri), expressed concern over increasing energy costs and pointed to the inadequacy of the country’s current grid infrastructure as the delay factor to integrating new clean energy sources, in addition to federal policies that have hindered efforts to build necessary transmission lines.

Exploring these findings further, a report released by the Institute for Energy Research (IER) asserts that media misrepresentation of wind and solar power as clean and affordable has created a public overestimation of their benefits that doesn’t include a pragmatic breakdown of their environmental consequences and costly backup systems.

By contrast, IER rates wind and solar power as significantly less efficient than fossil fuel and nuclear plants because the former requires “massive amounts” of capacity and materials for the same energy output, leading to increased mining and environmental impacts. IER policy analyst, William Rampe, highlights renewable energy’s reliance on polysilicon (a key ingredient in solar cells) and cobalt (needed for the manufacture of storage batteries) as problematic ingredients sourced from regions with poor labor practices, compounded by shorter operational lifespans that necessitate more frequent replacements compared to traditional energy sources.

Disposal of wind turbine blades and solar panels presents significant challenges. Rampe cites wind industry estimates that place blade waste at 47 million tons by 2050 and solar panel waste at a possible 78 million metric tons. Related environmental concerns include toxic leaching and threats to wildlife, while current disposal methods are inadequate to handle the scale of the problem, he says.

Meanwhile, the “levelized” costs of wind and solar power fail to account for the expenses associated with intermittency, including the backup power needed when wind and solar resources are unavailable, as well as the additional infrastructure required to deliver their electricity to demand centers. These technologies, Rampe argues, benefit from substantial subsidies that have been in place for decades, making it increasingly challenging for fossil fuel and nuclear generators to compete, thereby exacerbating the issue.

Analysts, Rampe concludes, tend to focus on the levelized cost of electricity, prioritizing the costs of construction and operation without considering the overall value to the grid.

To read this article in full, see the publisher’s website here.