Court says state can order electricity plants to reduce carbon emissions

If wind and solar were cheaper to build and operate than natural gas or emissions controlled coal then you'd see those plants being built across the country to maximize profit over operating natural gas and coal fired plants.

Germany tried this and is now paying through the nose and half freezing to death in the winter for it.

Want clean energy? Build pebble bed reactors or geothermal.

To properly understand this debate without acrimony and diatribes you need to be good @ Economics, Electrical Engineering and Physics

Full disclosure sometimes the lack of the above STEM knowledge by some results in my violating the above with respect to civility -- I just feel like throwing a proverbial brick through the screen

So this time nothing but the facts as I understand them based on my training in Physics, Electrical Engineering and Economics and my experience as a technical professional.

Let's start with some simple observations about Solar Energy [using approximation and somewhat mixed units for maximum familiarity]:

1. the Energy is Diffuse -- Approx 1 kW / sq. yard [1363 W/sq m] -- but that's outside the earth's atmosphere
2. Solar collectors are NOT Efficient in converting photons to electrons approximately 10 to 15% unless you are NASA and willing to pay for 20% to 25%
3. Solar collector effeciency decreases with the angle of the incident light [measured from from perpendicular to the collector face] -- decreases to 50% of maximum at 60 degrees (its a Cos curve with slight modifications)-- this translates into an elevation angle measured from the horizon of 30%
4. Where we are [Boston coordinates of 42:21 N, 71:03 W] the maximum solar elevation angle is 71.09 [Measured from the horizon] or 18.91 deg from the perp for use with our effeciency calculation [90 deg - the elevation angle] -- that angle occured on June 21st this year at a time by the clock of 12:46:03 [EDT] -- the corresponding Cos for the effeciency calculation is 0.946
5. Doing the math -- let's assume that your house has an ideally oriented flat roof with no trees in the way, no clouds in the sky and an area of 186 sq. m [2000 sq ft] -- let's further assume that the roof is a mono pitch roof aimed at the sun ans due south -- then assuming no atmospheric absorption the 1363 W/sq. m will yield 254 kW -- no wonder your attic gets hot!
6. With the Commercial Off the Shelf [COTS] solar array designed for residential or commercial applications operating at 15% effeciency and the roof tilted toward the sun optimally the array can deliver 38kW -- way more than a house of approximately 2000 sq ft would consume [Approximately 20 kW for 200 A service with everything at max]
7. Now let's consider the same house in early September 09/10/18 the solar elevation angle at apparent noon [12:41:11 EDT] by the clock is 52:43 and the Cos is 0.79 -- peak "Clean Atmosphere" [i.e. dry air no clouds no smoke, etc.] power output has dropped to 30 kW -- still good to run everything and send power out to the grid
8. On Thanksgiving Day as the turkey is cooking and the pregame football shows on TV are just starting the same roof and same array at apparent noon [11:30:22 EST] by the clock with solar elevation angle of 27:46 Cos of 0.46 -- the array is delivering 17.4kW probably more than enough if the day is neither hot nor cold
9. a Cold day in early January after a blizzard - - still [no wind] -- at apparent noon 11:48 EST by the clock the output of the array is 15.5 kW -- this might be a problem if you have Green Electric Heat -- probably OK if you are using Natural Gas with a pump or fan to circulate the heated water or air
10. So far it sounds OK for solar-- But there is one bit which has been left off -- what happens as the apparent solar position moves away from the noontime alignment of due south -- unless your house is on a turntable -- you will see a compound angle effect -- mid summer at 6 PM when the heat is near its max, muggy and there might not be much wind
11. August 02 @ 18:04 EDT the Solar elevation angle is 20.24 degrees [lower than noon on Thanksgiving Day] and the Cos is 0.35 -- the array is outputting 13.3 kW -- better use fans until later on
12. OOPS -- with no wind and the sun setting at 8:01 EDT -- its going to be a long long hot night until about 9:00 EDT when the array will let you air condition
13. Finally let's look at the early January day when the air is still -- no wind -- > No Wind power -- and we are home from work getting ready to cook with electricity, heat with at least the aid of electricity, drive with our Nisan Leaf , etc.
14. so let's arrive home at 5PM EST and -- OOPS no sun no electricity -- we are camping in a cold house until about 10:00 AM -- hope that the Leaf is fully charged so at least we can go out a get some Pizza in the North End

Note the above is optimal for all solar matters and realistic for wind. Cloudy mid summer days at noon are just like noon on Thanksgiving with array output less than 50%

Note also that we are ignoring the need to power large tall existing buildings with not much solar array area and potentially a lot of volume as well as the T and eventually all; of the Commuter Rail. factories, hospitals, elder-care facilities, server farms, urban farms, etc.

In order to be able to survive in this climate -- we need reliable electricity -- and sorry Wind and Solar alone -- Can Not "Make the Cut" -- Not without either importing power from somewhere else -- which is itself unreliable -- or having lots of local storage

Until either the storage is available or someone designs a cost effective Fusion Reactor or makes major improvements in Fission Nuclear technology -- we will need fossil fuel based electricity generation if just for backup and fossil fuels for industry, transportation and heat and hot water -- on and on into the onset of the Bright Green Nuclear / Thermonuclear future

No amount of wishing or promises from politicians will change the above

Most multi-family buildings do not have sufficient roof area to generate sufficient power to meet demand. Then one has the storage issue for when it's cloudy or night time. Photovoltaic and battery technology still has a long way to go. Then there's the whole rare earth metals problem with that technology. The mining and waste is toxic and totalitarian countries control most of the mining rights.