Several industry experts find the cleanliness of both gas and renewable energy technologies almost coincidental. For these analysts, the most important characteristic of these technologies is their suitability to small-scale, distributed installation close to where consumers actually need energy. They envision a system of mass-produced, distributed resources which integrates small, cogenerating, combined-cycle gas turbines and natural gas fuel cells with renewable energy technologies, energy storage devices, and energy efficiency measures.

To some extent, the shift to a distributed energy system will follow from inevitable social, economic and technological trends.

To some extent, the shift to a distributed energy system will follow from inevitable social, economic and technological trends. Citizen frustration with local environmental degradation are likely to lead to even slower, more byzantine licensing and siting procedures for large, one-of-a-kind coal, nuclear and hydropower facilities and new transmission lines needed to serve scattered consumers. The resulting higher construction costs and longer delays will increase the cost advantage of small-scale distributed resources.⁴⁸ Entrepreneurs will develop and refine a wide variety of technologies to fill the growing market niche.

Energy policy will help or hinder the shift to a distributed energy system. To that extent, the same measures will prove beneficial or detrimental to both gas and renewables. For example, the FERC recently required that utilities offer open access to the transmission grid and "charge" themselves the same rate to transmit power over their wires as they would charge anyone else. Utilities must thus "unbundle" their rates-that is, list separately generation, transmission and distribution costs on electric bills. Likewise, federal and state anti-trust principles will have the same impact on all distributed resources, as may policies with respect to transmission rates and what type of generators are subject to regulation.⁴⁹

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