One more reason renewable mini-power plants are good.

[skids]

We know they are a robust solution in the face of weather, on-site during disasters, and provide local jobs. Not to mention, a big step towards community self-sufficiency.

(Which is likely why the corporatist establishment drags their feet on them -- very hard to separate people from their necessities and extort large profits that way. Though to be fair, reworking the entire electrical grid to a "fabric" topology is no small task.)

But here's another perk: as energy prices bouy these projects won't need sweetheart tax breaks anymore.

That means your property taxes could go down

Because a business within your town borders pays in.

Orangeville, Ontario The 45 turbines of the Melancthon wind farm have added $2.7 million to the previously near-zero value of the township's industrial tax base, according to CAO/Clerk Denise Holmes. The figure is based on the provincially mandated $40,000 per megawatt of installed capacity, which means that each turbine is arbitrarily fixed at a $60,000 assessment for the turbine itself, the pad, and the access road. ... Melancthon is receiving $41,270 in total taxes from the plant. This includes $29,650 for the turbines themselves, $3,840 for buildings, and $8,230 for "roads and miscellaneous." Amaranth already would receive $6,670 for substation and roads. Dufferin County gets $44,740, and the boards of education get $103,825.

http://www.citizen.on.ca/news/2006/0629/Regional_news/006.html

(link is to full article, but creds to REA for uplinking the story:
http://renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=45378

...who incidentally have an interesting industry analysys article about weening wind power off tax credits. http://renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/reinsider/story?id=45068)

[acmejack]

1. Nice links

thanx

[IrateCitizen]

2. An energy idea that mimics nature's cycles???

One thing that has always struck my fancy about these kinds of ideas is the way that they are based upon a much more symbiotic relationship between people, rather than one that seeks to exert control and hierarchy. If anything, I would say this kind of idea comes closer to mimicking the cycles of nature rather than opposing them. This, I believe, is a core part of our collective consciousness that much change for us to successfully deal with the myriad of crises we are facing -- especially peak oil and global climate change.

E.F. Schumacher said that humans must learn to live more in harmony with the natural world, to try and emulate its closed-loop systems rather than to harness nature to our whims, if we ever wanted to create an economy that was truly sustainable. I honestly believe that not only energy usage -- but energy production -- presents opportunities for radical change in the near future. I know that some on these boards criticize solar and wind power for being unsufficient to meet our current needs, and that they are only available to those who are well-off enough to have the additional capital, regardless of tax breaks. Last I checked, there were very few people who had the capital required to gain a controlling interest in a modern-day power generation facility.

Any steps toward decentralization are something to be desired, IMHO -- and the decentralization of energy production and subsequent empowering of localities is one of the greatest opportunities of the near future for us to begin breaking bad patterns of behavior and consumption that impede our coming out of these crises eventually for the better.