Since a wind turbine's "fuel" (wind) is free and will never change in price, wind energy helps protect consumers from the price spikes that often affect conventional fuels. According to the testimony of the Public Service Company of Colorado, utilities like wind because it “acts as a hedge against future volatility of natural gas prices.” It also offers utilities an opportunity to lock in a price for up to 25 years via a long-term contract, usually referred to as a “Power Purchase Agreement”. Just as a fixed-rate home mortgage locks in home payments, this kind of contract prevents power generation costs from increasing unpredictably over time.

Utilities are also increasingly interested in adding wind to their generation portfolios, because the cost of wind energy has become much more competitive, costing between $0.06-$0.09/ kWh wholesale on average, even without government incentives. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average retail cost of residential electricity in the U.S. in 2012 was $0.12/ kWh.

Finally, it is important to note that building new wind energy facilities costs the same or less than building other new generation sources and, because wind energy is pollution-free, it has no hidden environmental or health costs. Furthermore, it is getting cheaper to maintain and operate wind farms, a fact which will continue to bring down energy costs; operation and maintenance costs for onshore wind have declined by 38% since 2008 - 11% in the last year alone. That means the price at which we can sell the power to a utility is getting lower and lower.