Cheapest electricity in the USA
although it isn't actually a country, with Canada and Iceland in close second.
Ignoring government subsidies,
the costs of energy comes from three main categories
- fuel
- distribution
- financing of capital
Fuel is cheapest in:
Canada: due to its massive amount of hydro power.
Iceland: due to its nearly infinite geothermal power.
Saudi Arabia: due to its weather and available sun shine for photovoltaics.
Idaho: due to nearby the hydro electric dam, Grand Coulee Dam
Southern California: due to its weather and available sun shine for photovoltaics.
Distribution of Power
Besides fuel sources (water, heat, and sun) for those 5 locations, the other impact on cost is the distribution of power and the cost of financing the capital structures (turbines and cells). A high density population close to the generation source would need the shortest amount of wires to move the electricity to the demand. I would suspect Iceland again would win here with Saudi Arabia and Southern California in close second. (SoCal presently has generation based on carbon fuels and long distant distribution so it is much more expensive today, but that should shift in time - much to the angst of the local utilities.)
Financing
Financing is cheapest in the most developed countries due to a stability of legal rights and political stability, so Canada and United States are likely the cheapest on the list so far, although I suspect that Iceland and Saudi Arabia might subsidize any IT investment.
I'd guess that near any hydro based generation plant in the United States would be the cheapest place to host servers based on the energy costs alone. The cost of energy is cheapest in Idaho at 6.90 cents per kWh and only 4.83 for Industrial. Source at EIA - Electricity Data. One of the best parts of investments in hydro based generation is that it effectively last forever. Oldest operating hydro dam in the states was built in 1891.*
Of course, that leads to the premise: are energy costs the prime driver? Not sure that they would be. I'd likely pick British Columbia, Canada or Iceland due to volcanoes and these things:
*US generator sources here:
Image source Google
Thanks for Reading
0 Comments