[RedDevil]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Sur

It sounds like they put up some solar panels with battery backup and started charging people 12 cents per kwh.
They aren't any where close to generating all their own electricity. They just pay more to buy "renewable feel good power" from the utility. So it's a little renewable power mixed in there, but its fully backed up by fossil fuel power. In the middle of the night when nearly all the wind turbines have stopped they're using coal fired power.
Hey if that makes you sleep well at night, go for it.
My base rate is 7 cents. I'll pass on paying more for feel good power.

At the time oil price peaked and the plan was more or less break even. They do indeed burn fossil fuels, as they do have running contracts that they can't end effectively, and yes they do rely on the network for backup.

Step one is trying to run a town using 100% renewables on average. It could even compete pricewise when oil was high. It can be fully self supportive if it uses a Tesla energy store or such, but in the current situation that is not necessary yet.

Oil was high and likely will be high in the future again.
Now that oil is low and the economy is growing it is time to invest in energy saving measures and clean generation and storage, so future highs won't hurt as much.