As long as we're talking about alternative energy, how about the other kinds? Solar, geo-thermal, hydro, even things like landfill-gas (methane.) They're putting up a ~450 solar panel down by the old steel mill to feed into the grid, and the nearby landfill makes a small amount of electricity for the grid as well.
Ian A.
We have a landfill about twenty miles east of town that accepts municipal waste from NJ and PA, mostly solids left over from water treatment plants if you know what I mean. They harvest the "fragrance" and send it to a VERY efficient coal-burning power plant that is owned by GE down the road as a supplemental fuel source. The power plant generates electricity, then uses their excess steam to heat a greenhouse the size of 13 football fields that produces millions of pounds of produce year-round.
The plant's emissions are completely scrubbed down to solid particulates that are used to manufacture asphalt and running tracks. The coal is delivered directly into the facility by rail from Western areas of VA, West Virginia and Kentucky with no trucking required.
All of this happens within about a two-mile radius in King George County, VA. Talk about efficiency. I know this because these facilities are my customers.
I don't see any solar or wind generation being big here, but I know people from NC to PA using geothermal heat pumps who are paying a fraction of what fossil fuel customers are paying for heating/cooling.
I'm a nuclear fan myself, but we know how quickly that subject can sway.
