But critics insist the costs of those solar panels are beginning to outweigh the benefits.
Incentive payments to homes with solar, they say, have led to higher electricity rates for everyone else — including families that can’t afford rooftop panels. If so, that’s not only unfair, it’s damaging to the state’s climate progress. Higher electricity rates make it less likely that people will drive electric cars and install electric heat pumps in their homes — crucial climate solutions.
The solar industry disputes the argument that solar incentive payments are driving up rates, as do many environmental activists. But Newsom’s appointees to the Public Utilities Commission are convinced, as they made clear Thursday.
“We need to reach our [climate] goals as fast as we can,” said Alice Reynolds, the commission’s president. “But we also need to be extremely thoughtful about how we reach our climate change goals in the most cost-effective manner.”
When I am having a stroke, I don’t stop and calculate of the most cost effective treatment options. I go to the emergency room. We could have done this calculation in 1970 and acted, but that ship has sailed.
The article doesn’t explain this, so I will. Anyone with solar panels who is still tied to the grid is still reliant on the grid. Any time they are not actively generating, they are pulling from the grid. Electricity costs are only partially generation; much of the cost is distribution infrastructure. People with enough solar to run their electric meter at a net negative are not paying their share of that infrastructure, and that cost goes to anyone else. People with solar panels are wealthier than those without due to the fact that you have to own a home to take advantage. Essentially, home solar subsidies are a wealth transfer from the poor to the rich. There are more equitable ways to make climate goals. It’s the same problem with subsidizing electric cars.
i have three costs on my bill:
rooftop solar should only reduce the first line
I agree. I have solar, in NH. I did not ever expect to get a $0 monthly bill, as I thought the ‘customer charge’ would never be covered by excess generation. But in our NEM plan, it is. As are delivery charges - because delivery charges are based on kWh consumed.
But you know what, I’ll take it as it is. Because I get paid $0.25 on the dollar of what I generate on the roof. Indeed, for every four kWh I generate, I am paid for one.
But in NH … We have essentially no state subsidies for solar. There sa $1000 max incentive. And it’s a lottery as we don’t generate enough tax revenue to give it to everyone that installs solar.
May I also just say I firmly believe all electric utilities should be public, not private. I’m very insensitive to the suffering of the profits of private utilities that drag their feet approving interconnection applications and defer maintence of their grid while also holding tax payers hostage during emergencies.
When the electricity my panels generate deliver electricity to my neighbors they charge my neighbor for transmission even though the transmission didn’t exist.
How does the power from your panels get to your neighbors if not over the grid?
Generally when people refer to the grid they’re talking about things like high voltage power lines or at least going through transformers. My block has a transformer at the end of it which means my whole street is on 240vac. If I send power to my neighbor the only infrastructure that is being used are those low power lines. They don’t wear out or degrade from me sending power from my house to them. In fact I save all the use of going through a bunch of transformers and long distance. In fact almost all infrastructure degrades due to age not usage. So a more equitable fee would be hey this is our operating cost for the grid per person you get charged per month. But no ca wants that fee plus a fee for transmission which is just double dipping and clearly a way to make more money off the monopolized customer base.
How does the billing work over there? Here in NZ, we pay a line charge and a unit rate, and power companies will buy power from rooftop solar at a lower rate than what they sell it for.
The buy price is typically half what they sell for.
Billing, in my experience, is predominantly based on usage. For each kWh of use, you get charged x% for generation, y% for distribution, and z% for tax. I’m sure some providers do use a flat charge for some things. Originally, electric meters were pretty dumb and analog, so they could only track net electricity through the meter. Lots of companies have rolled out smarter meters that can track how much is sold back to the grid so they can adjust the price accordingly. I think loads of places still have the older style of meter; I know I do. Companies basically have to weigh the costs of replacing all the meters with the benefits of that extra bit of money.
Isn’t there typically a flat rate to cover the costs of hooking up to infrastructure?