Today, renewable energy resources such as wind, solar and geothermal energy serve as supplements to more conventional sources such as coal or natural gas-fired generating stations and large-scale hydroelectric facilities.

But as demand increases, our existing mainstream generating stations will reach their capacity—and we will need new sources of conventional, fossil-fueled energy.

Economic and environmental concerns will mean these new, renewable energy sources will begin to play a larger and larger role. In fact, Idaho Power’s 2006 Energy Plan for the Future (the 2006 Integrated Resource Plan) already projects an increase of 400 megawatts (MW) of renewable resources as part of our generation mix over the next 20 years.

Increasing our reliance on these types of generation is not only good for the environment, but gives our customers more choices in the source of their electricity, too.