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One advantage of distributed power plants is that each small generator can come on line faster - so SOME money can be recovered even before the whole project is done - unlike a conventional power plant where the whole has to finished and tested before any money is generated.

This is exactly how the Luddites have killed the larger projects (all of them, not just nuclear units). Stretch out the completion time until the carrying charges kill you. So an advantage of a smaller unit is faster completion time. Start generating revenue quicker, as you say, and start paying off the bonds and other financing charges.

So it sounds like a typical engineering problem, making the best of the trade-offs. But if this recent blackout snafu has taught us anything, its that we place a premium on reliability. If a sizable portion of your baseload capacity is derived from a source that is inherently intermittant, instead of having grid instabilities that take you down every 20 years or so, you'll be dealing with them on a weekly or monthly basis. I for one wouldn't want to have a NE blackout occurring on a monthly basis. The economy would go to pieces, and the people would tar and feather and run out of town on a rail any utility executive that "allowed" such things to happen.

See? THAT'S the problem!

A wind farm can't be the baseline source - which means that you (the utility in the region, not the wind farm supplier!) HAVE to keep up and build a baseline supplier because the wind farm is vunerable to drops ...

Sudden,irregular, unpredictable drops.

No wind - sure. No power. No money.

Only a little wind - only a minute amount of power (which means the EXPENSIVE baseline utility has to provide the difference! - but maintenance and deterioration and upkeep stays the same for the wind operator.

Regular "day" - Some power.

Windy day (the "peak power" time used the article!) means the wind farm makes a profit, the regular baseline utility has to pay all ITS workers and the power plant expenses - BUT DOESN'T GET PAID for its standing expenses!)

Stormy day - The wind farm HAS TO SHUT down. Its power generators must feather their props to protect the turbine when wind speeds GET TOO HIGH. (the blades can withstand storm winds of (maybe) 75 - 100 mph - but they rarely can be designed to generate regulated power over 45-50 knots. So, when there is too much wind - the baseline generators must run again.

When damaged by storms - the wind farm is OOC for maybe years - until repaired by experts who rebuild each generator and propeller wing. Again - a conventional power plant is almost NEVER damaged by storms - only the rural overhead lines are destroyed and can be simply repaired by outside line crews who come from out-of-state. Anybody can fix a power line.

Who is your "outside crew" who can drive up their crane and tugboat and aircraft factory from TN or VA or GA to fix an airlane wing in mid-air from a boat anchored in a bay off Mass?