The Christian Science Monitor reports on legislation proposed by Republican law-makers in Wyoming:
The bill would require utilities to use "eligible resources" to meet 95 percent of Wyoming's electricity needs in 2018, and all of its electricity needs in 2019.
Those "eligible resources" are defined solely as coal, hydroelectric, natural gas, nuclear, oil, and individual net metering.
The latter would encompass houses (and businesses?) with solar, wind or co-generation equipment. Utility-scale generation, however, could face a $10/MWh penalty.
The article notes that
Wyoming is the nation's largest coal producer [...] nearly 90 percent of the electricity generated in Wyoming came from coal in September 2016, the most recent month with available data.
A PDF of the bill, SF0071, is available on the Wyoming legislature's Web site.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 23 2017, @10:25AM
Capitalist solution would be to give birth to energy bankers business: entrepreneurs who invest in building energy storage facilities, and profit of buying renewable energy when it is plentiful and cheap, then selling it back when renewables are off line and energy price soars. Technology? Whatever works best for them, for the money they have available to put into it: reversible hydro, flywheels, electrolysis/fuel cells, batteries, ...
It is so simple, practically a no-brainer.