The system in place allows first dibs on “fixed rate” gas contracts to distributors serving home heating customers. Any residual capacity is bid in the “spot” market, which the electrical generating facilities are relegated to.
Coal and nuclear plants were in the mix, but the gas fired plants have moved from 12% to 45% of the mix in a decade, without supplementing the gas delivery system sized only for residential heating demand.
Nimby and the windmill crowd are sinking prospects for improvement, at least until enough residents actually freeze.
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Nimby and the windmill crowd are sinking prospects for improvement, at least until enough residents actually freeze."
Agreed! I like small wind turbines (10-20 foot rotors), but only if they're home built (including home built alternators on trailer hubs because of the gusts that kill small commercial turbines). And only because it's very often extremely windy in this spot at over 9,000 feet elevation in the winter. PV solar is still much nicer to use, though (no yearly disassembly for maintenance).
But subsidies for wind turbines in most areas (like MO...been there) are big ripoffs. I wouldn't have a wind turbine in the Ozarks, although a
solar hot water and space heating system or
rocket mass heater would still be very nice there. There are not enough frequent, strong winds in MO for wind turbines (unlike my area and parts of Wyoming--climate unlike weather in most places). Most parts of the country are not suitable for wind power.
NIMBYs are even worse! They won't allow gas drilling here, unless the drillers slip monstrous bucks to local regulators (NIMBY enforcement). They won't allow uranium exploration at all and spread all kinds of tales to stop it. There's no point. They're only making trouble. They go on about property values, but they should realize that real estate will continue going down for decades. They should have built small and efficient instead of playing big shots to become victims of the Ponzi scheme real estate market, which has long been hugely overpriced.