[DonaldC]

“Theoretically it’s so cheap, it will not need to be metered.”

That is in part the problem. Lots of solutions on the micro level that don’t get attention because, as I understand it, nobody has figured out how to put a meter on it. Just google off grid solutions for individual homes. At the macro level (ie providing a city or even a significant part of one), while I like the idea of wind and solar, there is just no way I can see it ever being viable.

[Paladin2]

"while I like the idea of wind and solar, there is just no way I can see it ever being viable."

I like it conceptually as a backup system (with batteries and hooking up a few car alternators as needed) and as a freedom from Gov't intervention (thermostat set points, kWh/mo limits, etc.) device/system.

[JustSurrounded]

I caught something on TV the other day (maybe from Robert Bryce, author of “Power Hungry: The Myths of ‘Green’ Energy”.) He said something to the effect that to produce the same amount of power from wind turbines as that from one nuclear power plant in Texas, it would take an area the size of Rhode Island. To produce the same amount of energy with ethanol, another “green” fuel, it would take 24 Rhode Islands to grow enough corn.

He called it ‘energy sprawl’.