Natural Gas – The Elephant in the Room

The session I just caught here at the Renewable Energy Finance Forum included a good discussion on the elephant in the room, the low cost of natural gas.  It’s low, but wind competes effectively, if the owner of the gas plant is responsible for the fuel supply, i.e., has to take the risk of gas prices over the next 20 years.

The issue is that the utilities only want so much of an intermittent resource, especially one whose peak doesn’t match load.  This, of course, is what opens the door, long-term, for storage: pumped hydro, as well as the prospective challengers: compressed air, molten salt, advanced rail, zinc-air batteries, etc.