No business relishes being on the receiving end of the intense pressure experienced most recently by genetic engineering companies. The general recognition that this is significant to long-term corporate survival is a phenomenon of the 90s. The electricity industry is not insulated from public concern. It is no longer immune to consumer pressure. They will continue to be supplied power through the existing electricity network.
Technological changes tend to come in waves.
A typical pattern is for one generation to make a discovery, explain the science to the next, after which it can then take decades to become part of daily life. With so many natural resources familiar for centuries, such as windmills, renewable energy is different. Financial analysts like to compare the market to a herd that has tremendous inertia. But it can take just one or two members to break away to precipitate a stampede. The whole market turns.