The Ontario government plans to sell off 60% of the publicly owned Hydro One. As a general principle I believe critical infrastructure belongs in the hands of the public. So my first reaction to this announcement was negative.
Then the Tesla home battery announcement happened.
The ability to cheaply store energy makes distributed power generation possible. This is a great thing for technologies like wind and solar and could make it possible for homes to greatly reduce their reliance on the centralized power grid. The link below makes the case that the economics of Tesla’s new batteries are pretty good and bound to get better.
http://gizmodo.com/tesla-battery-economics-on-the-path-to-disruption-1701854536
Is it possible that we are near or at the peak value of our centralized power generation infrastructure? If so, selling high and getting it off the province’s books now may turn out to be a good thing.
