Yep, not much actually “rural rural” in CT at all. It is overwhelmingly suburban with different degrees of rural-to-urban feel.
Many comfortably-off house owners have got generators here over the past several years, as the frequency of outages seems to have gone up throughout New England. Others simply check into a hotel when there’s a storm coming.
Power companies will say it has to do with local limits on their chopping down or severely trimming trees; residents, on the utilities scrimping on repairs.
The idea of solar would be popular in purple-to-blue state CT, but the days of full sun here are limited.
The solar is sensible in rural Texas-we have plenty of sun year-round, and the panels are not so expensive any more-so the rural co-op here is encouraging it. About 35% of the co-op’s power is wind generated, from the wind farms in West Texas, and that increases every year.
If the Obama stranglehold on our drilling is broken, the overall cost will go down by using oil, wind and some solar to good advantage. I pray every day that will happen soon...
How did local limits on the trees in rural areas there come about? Since the 1980’s, when rural land is platted here, whether it is a subdivision of acreage lots or just two or three small ranches, the trees have been measured and counted for soil conservation and animal habitat, and no “clear cutting” is allowed-if you go there, each tree is charged for by the inches of diameter-this is a heavily wooded area-several smartass developers from out of state have been ruined by that tree ordinance...
There is a county easement of 20-30 feet from the road, where utility wires and poles are located, and the trees are trimmed there every Winter to keep limbs out of the lines, forget any squalling. If our utility company even thought of scrimping on repairs, they would be hanged-this is a co-op-the subscribers/users own it...