Your monthly energy bill may be increasingly tough to stomach. Utility bills have increased nearly 30% in the past five years due to rising fuel costs. Now utilities across the U.S. are raising power prices as much as 29% in response to the continuing increases in fuel prices, and also because they need to build new plants and upgrade the aging power grid. Even more dramatic price increases are anticipated in coming years. The price of coal has doubled in the last year, and natural gas prices are up nearly 50%. The cost to build new power plants has also doubled since 2000.

With coal and natural gas prices on the rise it doesn’t seem to make sense to keep investing in traditional energy sources. Wouldn’t you rather that your money go towards building renewable energy sources? This option has a number of advantages. First off, once the initial investment in a renewable energy system is paid off, money you would have spent on energy becomes money in the bank. Meanwhile nonrenewable energy sources just keep sucking up money indefinitely. Beyond the financial argument, having our own renewable energy sources also increases our energy independence and ensures stable energy supplies in the future.