I want WanderingEng to fact check me and tell me where I'm full of shit.

1) Traditionally, power generation has been a combination of thermodynamics and energy conversion. Chemical to thermal to kinetic to electrical. Nuclear to thermal to kinetic to electrical. Also traditionally, the simple physical behavior of working fluids combined with the manufacturing state-of-the-art rewarded larger-scale installations. A wind farm, however, goes from kinetic to electrical. A solar farm goes from radiant to electrical. A hydroelectric dam goes from kinetic to electrical. Due to the nature of wind energy, any wind farm is necessarily a composite of hundreds or thousands of generators. Due to the nature of solar, the output of the array is the output of photoreceptors whose number is counted in scientific notation. As such, economies of scale cease to matter quite so much. A 10MW nuclear reactor is a heavy industrial work employing hundreds of people in one place and energy distribution is necessarily concentrated. A 10MW wind farm covers square miles of territory and employs a fraction as many employees. A 10MW hydroelectric plant is either operational or it isn't. A 10MW solar array is however many grid points are energized.

2) Traditionally, an electrical utility is effectively a bond organization that manages and protects a large capital asset. With solar or wind energy, the capital costs scale proportionate to the output. Up-front costs are lower and less investment is necessary.

3) Therefore the need for monopoly protection of utilities may be becoming a thing of the past. If the grid is municipally-owned, the grid owner must only maintain the connection between the consumer and the producer of their choice. LADWP offers users the choice to purchase some percentage of their energy from renewables at greater expense; if Tesla builds a MegaFarm in Nevada and dumps into the grid at 7c/kWh they have the ability to drive Navajo Station out of business.

Which, let's be honest. Probably isn't better for jobs but is hella better for ecology.

I'm cool with it. I was one of those assholes that paid extra for renewables. Shit, if I get to pick who I buy long distance service from, surely I should in theory be able to pick who I buy power from.