Wind energy potential dwarfs today's electricity use, report says

[Finishline42]

33. I think your read on Texas is a bit off

While you are probably correct on the political power of the oil industry in Texas you are missing the politics of wind and solar. It's one of the main the reasons why there are still tax breaks for wind and solar. Property owners in the wind belt make somewhere around $500 per windmill per month. I read years ago about a rancher in West Texas scrub land that was going to get over $900k a year for 150 windmills on his land. Do you think people like him are for wind? I imagine the same kind of deals are now being made for solar.

Something else I think you are missing is that when wind and/or solar are producing that is the cheapest power on the grid. It all gets bought with the mechanics of the auctions. And every kwH that they sell increases the cost of the power for every other producer. Nuclear and fossil fuel plants have much higher operational costs and when you reduce the number of hours they are being used then the cost per unit of electricity goes up. So basically what we are seeing is a positive feedback loop for renewables. The more that gets bought, the cheaper the windmills and solar panels get, the more expensive the power from nuclear and fossil fuel plants become.