There have been a run of encouraging reports over the past week amid the big picture market turmoil and electoral attention. There is an encouraging acceleration of solar install activity on the horizon.
Spire Corporation is cited as a growth engine here. Soon after come announcements from National Grid, and an echos in Pittsburgh. New Jersey is weighing in on wind. Vermont has expansion plans for bio-gas production in dairy farms.
The best thing about all this and a likely factor in accelerated growth is the install costs when compared with proposing, designing, permitting, insuring and building a conventional power plant and I imagine the decentralization is pretty appealing too.
There is also a likely advantage in cost overrun relief, surely a welcome thing here in Massachusetts, where cost damage from the horrific Big Dig has cast a blight shadow over the entire remaining infrastructure as it leaves a crippled economy in the State Government sector.
So, as the finance world chokes on its own mess and the media pummels us with drivel about the election, may we take comfort in the likelihood that these decentralized adaptations may have a useful impact well before the 700 billion dollar bailout does, if it does.
