I'm confused about the economics of this wind power option. I want to believe this is a good thing, because if it is, then no-brainer, sign me up! But I feel like I need more information. I'm hoping that since you're a self-pronounced green energy freak :) you might be able to clarify some things that are nagging on my mind about this, so I can get psyched about it, too.
It looks from the website as if NStar is buying power from two wind generating plants out of state. The critical part of me wants to know if they would be buying power from these additional suppliers anyway. Does NStar actually change how much of their own power they generate by coal and nukes based on how many people sign up for this? Does NStar operate in the markets where this power is generated in upstate NY and Maine? (and if not, is there a lossyness of energy transmission that has to be considered?) I find myself wondering if they might be buying this power anyway, and this could be an opportunity to do an end-run around regulatory measures regarding power rates by having ecologically minded people support their business-as-usual by paying a premium for something that they are doing by necessity anyway?
One thing I don't know is how variable the power-generation system is. At some point I had come to believe they were operating at or near capacity, at least in the summers (hence the rolling black-outs in densely populated areas). If this is the case, it would seem to me that if no one, or if thousands of people, sign up to pay extra for wind-power, they might still be buying it from other suppliers either way.
Perhaps they might be buying from other coal and nuke plants and are using this as a metric to determine public support for (plausibly more expensive) wind power and give them customer-counts to wave in front of legislature when looking for permission to build new wind plants? If it has use for the latter, it would still have some monetary value in my book, and might be an efficient way to fund regulatory support for wind power.
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It looks from the website as if NStar is buying power from two wind generating plants out of state. The critical part of me wants to know if they would be buying power from these additional suppliers anyway. Does NStar actually change how much of their own power they generate by coal and nukes based on how many people sign up for this? Does NStar operate in the markets where this power is generated in upstate NY and Maine? (and if not, is there a lossyness of energy transmission that has to be considered?) I find myself wondering if they might be buying this power anyway, and this could be an opportunity to do an end-run around regulatory measures regarding power rates by having ecologically minded people support their business-as-usual by paying a premium for something that they are doing by necessity anyway?
One thing I don't know is how variable the power-generation system is. At some point I had come to believe they were operating at or near capacity, at least in the summers (hence the rolling black-outs in densely populated areas). If this is the case, it would seem to me that if no one, or if thousands of people, sign up to pay extra for wind-power, they might still be buying it from other suppliers either way.
Perhaps they might be buying from other coal and nuke plants and are using this as a metric to determine public support for (plausibly more expensive) wind power and give them customer-counts to wave in front of legislature when looking for permission to build new wind plants? If it has use for the latter, it would still have some monetary value in my book, and might be an efficient way to fund regulatory support for wind power.
Tell me more?