The way I undestand Cap-and-Trade carbon credits, coal steam-electric power will get very expensive. The extra money that comes into the government from this will provide the funding for individual and community RE tax incentives. At least thats the plan, you trust poilticians, don't you?
In plain english the Government will tax coal and subsidize PV roof panels and plug-in hybrid cars (and any other "green-approved" program they deem useful to their agenda)
Everyone knows that when the wind doesn't blow, wind-turbines dont make watts, but the more wind turbines we have, the less coal is burned.
"clean coal" is misleading, but "cleaner than the way we do it now coal" is possible, but it is (you guessed it), expensive.
Geothermal ORC (freon steam) is only possible in specific locations, but anywhere it can be put, it should be.
I can envision energy co-op's being similar to a condo association with a meeting once a month to discuss business.
Perhaps a PV farm with a couple large wind-gens feeds a Vanadium Redox battery that services a cluster of homes. Each home recieves a monthly energy allowance for the base fee, and any use over that is very expensive. Perhaps a propane-powered back-up gen?
Pilot communities will be difficult to start-up, and getting existing home-owners to agree on anything will be like herding cats...