when power gets to about .25/kwatt/hr, and oil is about 70usd/barrel
microcogeneration starts to make real sense for the masses.
i think somewhere in a dark cigar smoke filled room, the guys that try to control
this mess have that figured out, once the public starts to see that they can produce
their own power the utility companies start to lose customers, they need less coal
so the coal producers lose money, the rails ship less so they lose money, they burn less natural gas, so the gas/oil companies sell less which upsets their markets, and perhaps worst of all in their mind is the gennie is forever out of the bottle.
once microgeneration really starts to be accepted as reality, there will be companies popping up everywhere to supply the equipment and the real new economy
and the next bubble will start to inflate.
its just a matter of time, in my opinion for the numbers to come together in the proper order for it to make sense and then it will happen quite rapidly.
this among other things is why the utility industry does not reinvest any more than is absolutely necessary to keep the lights on, that and of course the profit margin
for this day/quarter/year so the stock holder don't kick them off the board.
reinvesting reduced profits today/quarter/year, but might return profits later?
but the investing world doesn't care much about some profits next year or decade
and beyond, they want it now!
i don't see any rapid move to increased capacity, smart grid, rebuilding the grid
or much of anything else that is very rapid anytime soon if ever, unless the money
comes from some huge government program, but
the government is broke as a joke, and we the people have had about all we wanna give taken from us...
so there is the full circle, back to us, we don't wanna pay more taxes, so we look to see if there is more we can do for ourselves, and waaalaaa,,,microgeneration and the resulting very distributed and uncontrolled/untaxed generation that they have never wanted anyway.
i would say it is just about
"checkmate"
bob g