Man, 42 cents per kwhr? Sounds like HQ is really gouging the h*ll out of a captive customer base. And while VT is a very beautiful state, I can't think of a much worse venue for PV solar (I won't even mention the thermal solar boondoggle). And tearing up miles of ridge lines and old-growth forests (for access roads) for windmills that will have maybe 35% capacity factor at best is not exactly a prescription for maintaining a healthy ecosystem. States with RPS statutes on the books are starting to learn the hard way how misguided that is.
I live near the largest contiguous beech forest in the northeast. It is also one of the largest and best black bear habitats in New England and home to three nesting pairs of bald eagles that have developed here in the last ten years. So what do you think the greenies did to appease their fairy god. I know, you guessed. They mowed the protected ridgelines for miles to erect 400’ windmills that are lucky to achieve 20% uptime efficiency. That and the solar farms that sit covered in snow for a good part of the winter are a blight on the landscape IMO.
Oh yeah, as to the eagles, there was a bruhaha regarding a juvenile eagle found dead from blunt force trauma this summer with everyone running around trying to figure out what happened. If only they had looked over their shoulders and seen the giant windmills less than 2 miles away they might have gotten a clue.
As far as thermal solar goes I do support that here on a small scale as an adjunct source. Actually I support most small scale so called “alternative” energy production, but in this area I don’t support it as “base load power”. Hot standby is required which destabilizes the grid, wastes energy, and makes people believe alternate sources are viable base load power. It’s a dream, and a bad one at that.