According to the WP on October 25th, more DEMAND is GOOD and lowers electricity bills, while using solar and wind is BAD and raises electricity bills.
The real cause of higher bills? poles, wires and other electrical equipment as well as the cost of safeguarding that infrastructure against future disasters.
Obviously someone at the WP fell off the apple cart only yesterday.
*Article relies on Brattle Group, a global consulting firm paid by Fortune 100 companies to give them useful position papers or points of view or data that supports their clients objectives. WP is quoting them a highly biased source without incorporating outside views. (!!)
*Correlation is often misleading. Why might electricity cost more in regions where wind or solar are used? The WP article implies it is proof that clean energy raises costs (and includes spreading fixed plant costs over a smaller base). But it is quite plausible that the regions with higher cost inputs find it easier to cost-justify clean-energy investments. Or it is possible that the two factors are unrelated accidents of geography or politics that makes wind energy or solar more feasible.
*Fixed costs spread over a smaller base is grossly oversimplified It fails to recognize that marginal costs are not a simple linear relationship. The biggest fixed costs, the power plants themselves, each have a certain capacity and a certain efficiency, and the extend to which supply matches demand matters. If you have 5 power units consistently running at full capacity and need to build a 6th unit, the average cost-per-megawatt is endlessly complicated by factors of land, logistics, capacity planning and more.