Think about this, all the base loaded generators, the biggest are the 4 nuke plants, were paying to stay online.
I wonder how long they can afford to pay to generate?
No wonder new conventional generators cannot find financing to build new resources.
Thank you Production Tax Credit! The wind generators have very well financed Lobbyist.
They can't. There are whole power plants, perfectly functional and reliable facilities, that are being thrown away in New England for the reasons mentioned in this article. Wind and solar get massive subsidies (PTC, feed-in tariffs, must-take provisions) that other producers don't get. This allows them to bid negative prices into the spot power auctions. Otherwise, they'd be the most expensive producers because of unreliability and intermittency, and go out of business. The latter is why Boone Pickens was pushing wind so hard a few years ago. You need all the infrastructure of the traditional grid as backup when the wind isn't blowing. That means quick-start, on-demand generators, and that means natural gas-fired turbines, and natural gas is what Pickens is all about.
Read the other posts:
Fed subsidies exceed the $8+ per MW-hr they are paying by nearly $15, resulting in a net profit.