Solar power adds to nonusers' costs
Booming rooftop solar installations in California are bringing an unwelcome surprise to the homes and businesses that don't have the devices: an extra $1.3 billion added to their annual bills, more than half of that for Pacific Gas & Electric customers.
Power companies in the state, the nation's biggest for solar power, are required to buy electricity from home solar generators at the same price they resell it to other customers, meaning utilities earn nothing to cover their fixed costs. The rules are shortsighted because eventually rates must be raised to make up the difference, according to Southern California Edison, which has joined with competitors to estimate potential losses.
As more homes and warehouses get covered in solar panels, higher rates imposed on traditional consumers risk a growing conflict between renewable-energy advocates and power companies that foresee a backlash in California and 42 other states with similar policies. The tension has also emerged in countries including Spain and Germany, where solar investments are curbing investment in the power grid.
"You get into a situation where you have a transmission and distribution system with nobody paying for it," said Akbar Jazayeri, vice president of regulatory operations at Edison, a unit of Edison International and California's second-largest electric utility.
To deter losses as solar abounds, states typically set a cap on the amount of photovoltaic power utilities must buy under what is called net-metering policies. Those allow a meter to run backward during the hours a day when a home or business is selling the power to the utility. California's limit is 5 percent of a utility's aggregate peak load.
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Solar-power-adds-to-nonusers-costs-4124277.php
= new reply since forum marked as read
and why power plants should be owned by the communities they serve and operated as non-profit co-ops..paid for with taxation for hiring maintenance people and people to run it.
Younger people may not know it, but that's how it used to be before private companies came along & did them all a big favor & bought up their utilities..
Germany is one of the world's top photovoltaics installers, with a solar PV capacity as of 2011 of almost 25 gigawatts (GW). As of 31st on October 2012, there were 31.62 GW of photovoltaics connected to the electrical power network. The German solar PV industry installed about 7.5 GW in 2011, and solar PV provided 18 TWh (billion kilowatt-hours) of electricity in 2011, about 3% of total electricity. Some market analysts expect this could reach 25 percent by 2050.
... On midday of Saturday May 26, 2012, solar energy provided over 40% of total electricity consumption in Germany, and 20% for the 24h-day... Solar power in Germany has been growing considerably due to the country's feed-in tariffs for renewable energy which were introduced by the German Renewable Energy Act. Prices of PV systems have decreased more than 50% in 5 years since 2006.
...A feed-in tariff is the most effective means of developing solar power.[14] It is the same as a power purchase agreement, but is at a much higher rate. As the industry matures, it is reduced and becomes the same as a power purchase agreement. A feed-in tariff allows investors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_in_Germany
While Germany (Known for it's sunny climate!) has become the world leader in photovoltaics the US has been carrying out the PNAC plan.
Compare the photo above to our base in Kosovo (PNAC 1999):
Camp Bondsteel
If the US Gov wanted energy independence it would have started a serious program in the 70's, or the 80's, or the 90's OR IT WOULD START one now.
Obama can't even keep his promise to put solar panels onto the white house FFS.
