I use Bulb energy here in the UK. It saves me around $400 annually over fossil fuel energy suppliers. I've also made over $2000 referring people to them by sharing my positive experiences.

I was surprised to see them launch the service in Texas, the official home of crude oil. Large oil rigs and 10mpg pickup trucks are what I see when I think of Texas, so will a provider that is entirely renewable and stress free succeed despite the $600+ of annual savings?

https://bulb.com

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Why I will never do business with "DieselKraut" again

http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/mercedes-benz-used-parts-sale-wanted/378935-why-i-will-never-do-business-dieselkraut-again.html

When I price out electric here in TX (once a year) renewable energy usually come out much more expensive.

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Sent from an agnostic abacus

2014 C250 21,XXX my new DD ** 2013 GLK 350 18,000 Wife's new DD**

- With out god, life is everything.
- God is an ever receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller as time moves on..." Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- You can pray for me, I'll think for you.
- When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

I understand that wind power is attractive to remote Texas ranchers. Lot of land, lot of wind, not too many neighbors to piss off. I'm guessing proximity to transmission lines is a big factor.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

I bet Texas wants to sell California the extra juice at a premium

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1993 e300
1995 e320
1994 e320
2006 s500 4matic
2004 Jeep wj overland
2001 Ducati 748
2004 Honda shadow aero

Texas is one of the largest producers of solar and wind power. Major energy companies (traditional oil companies) have invested heavily in alternative R&D. Texas is a state full of surprises. Like DFW, Austin and Houston are increasingly leftwing and getting more so as Californios depart the tax madness and move to Texas, with no income tax. And great roads and public schools. Except in DFW, Austin and Houston.

AKA nothing left to trash here, lets move where it is working, so we can trash that too.

Tax incentives have driven a lot of wind installation in the last few years. I remember talking to some of the 'renewables' people where I work (I work for a large electric utility) and they were straight up about it: 'yeah, we need to get this project done and commissioned before the end of the year when the tax credits expire. And unless they are renewed, we aren't coming back for more new installs.'

So in my mind, a lot of these wind/solar farms are built with 'made up' money (or worse, arbitrarily-decided money). This totally skews the economics of the situation and in my mind, makes the future shaky or unsustainable -
When those tax breaks run out, what is gonna happen ? (or are we just going to give tax breaks forever...?)

(dont get me started about market impacts and negative $/MW-Hr numbers

-NERC Compliance guy

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

The physics of the issue come down about like this - You can economically sell power to someone up to 800 miles away until the line losses become too much. Thats not a hard number, but as a thumbrule, based on physical lines and market delineations in the US - Ive found it to be true. The means that CA stops getting power from anyone east of the Hoover Dam.

There are local grid operators and marketing agreements that yeah, maybe you (TX) sell a bunch of power to AZ, who then sells its own power to CA (net-same result) but now you need to get 2 competing business to agree on a strategy, and go in on a contract about it...I'm not sure if that works in real life.

-John

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2009 Kia Sedona
2009 Honda Odyssey EX-L
12006 Jetta Pumpe Duse
(insert Mercedes here)

Husband, Father, sometimes friend =)

No doubt. Enron also wanted, scratch that, accomplished selling juice at higher rates to California. Winning!

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

Unfortunately wind and solar are very expensive with high up front costs, short lifespan and limited energy production (hydro aside) But new hydro projects are far and few between and hydro generation is dropping off due to the drought situation so our options for large scale renewable energy are limited. Wind and solar provide less than 3 percent and are heavily subsidized. The massive Diablo Canyon nuclear plant is going off line in the near future removing 2200 megawatts of generation (8.6 percent of total California generation). California has announced plans to reduce fossil fuel (even natural gas) generation so where is the shortfall going to be made up? There is a 3100mw DC transmission line that connects hydro generation in the Pacific NW to LA but as I mentioned hydro generation is going to decline.

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Tony H
W111 280SE 3.5 Coupe
Manual transmission

Past cars:
Porsche 914 2.0
'64 Jaguar XKE Roadster
'57 Oval Window VW
'71 Toyota Hilux Pickup Truck-Dad bought new
'73 Toyota Celica GT

Actually, they're diesels, so more like 17 MPG. But yeah, there are a lot of pick-up trucks there. The women who aren't driving pick-up trucks seem to all drive Chevy Suburban's, regardless of household income. The wealthier the household the newer the Suburban, though.

Texas is also spread out. I have a cousin in San Antonio. We went "across town" to a picnic at a friend's house. I drove. My cousin looked at my fuel gauge and said I needed to fill-up to get there and back.

I had some projects in Texas and would drive there from Florida. It's so windy there that my fuel economy was horrible when traveling out there (westbound), but noticeably better when driving home (eastbound). Before I figured that out, I had suspicions that I was getting bad gasoline in Louisiana.

I had a lot of work in Corpus Christi. My employer's three sites were separated by about 50 miles between them. My daily mileage going between them was so high that our accounting department initially wouldn't fully reimburse me for all of my "in and around" mileage expenses.