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Related: About this forumStudied To Death — Solar Customers Don't Harm Non-Solar Ratepayers
Studied To Death Solar Customers Don't Harm Non-Solar Ratepayers
September 27, 2016
By Tony Clifford
<snip>
...heres the argument the utilities want to prove: Solar customers, by consuming their own energy, are avoiding paying for upkeep on the grid, which (in this argument) means those costs shift to non-solar ratepayers.
Frankly, its a compelling sell. If I didnt know better, Id probably resent solar customers, too. After all, why should solar customers get the grid for free while Im paying for its upkeep?
Now that theyve got your dander up, the utilities go in for the kill: This freeloading scenario demands that they charge solar customers special charges (monthly fixed charges, solar tariffs, etc.) so equity for all ratepayers can be maintained. Unfortunately, there is little evidence to show their claims are true.
In fact, 16 states have commissioned cost-benefit analyses on whether having solar consumers on the grid negatively affects non-solar customers (the list misses the studies in South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana). Only one study has given even the hint that ratepayers are harmed (Louisiana), and that study was done by a firm so closely tied to the fossil-fuels industry as to be easily discounted.
And yet some states refuse to believe the evidence of their own studies. In recent years, Nevada commissioned two studies that showed solar is a benefit to all consumers. Earlier this year, they commissioned a third study in the hopes that it would show something different.
Weve seen the same pattern in other states where the fossil-fuel interests are so entrenched that they can fight tooth-and-nail to keep their monopoly power on electrical distribution. Lets take Maine for an example....
Read more at http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/09/studied-to-death-solar-customers-don-t-harm-non-solar-ratepayers.htmlSeptember 27, 2016
By Tony Clifford
<snip>
...heres the argument the utilities want to prove: Solar customers, by consuming their own energy, are avoiding paying for upkeep on the grid, which (in this argument) means those costs shift to non-solar ratepayers.
Frankly, its a compelling sell. If I didnt know better, Id probably resent solar customers, too. After all, why should solar customers get the grid for free while Im paying for its upkeep?
Now that theyve got your dander up, the utilities go in for the kill: This freeloading scenario demands that they charge solar customers special charges (monthly fixed charges, solar tariffs, etc.) so equity for all ratepayers can be maintained. Unfortunately, there is little evidence to show their claims are true.
In fact, 16 states have commissioned cost-benefit analyses on whether having solar consumers on the grid negatively affects non-solar customers (the list misses the studies in South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana). Only one study has given even the hint that ratepayers are harmed (Louisiana), and that study was done by a firm so closely tied to the fossil-fuels industry as to be easily discounted.
And yet some states refuse to believe the evidence of their own studies. In recent years, Nevada commissioned two studies that showed solar is a benefit to all consumers. Earlier this year, they commissioned a third study in the hopes that it would show something different.
Weve seen the same pattern in other states where the fossil-fuel interests are so entrenched that they can fight tooth-and-nail to keep their monopoly power on electrical distribution. Lets take Maine for an example....
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Studied To Death — Solar Customers Don't Harm Non-Solar Ratepayers (Original Post)
kristopher
Oct 2016
OP
Then the $$ value of your array to the grid would have exceeded the cost of ...
kristopher
Oct 2016
#2
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)1. The solar I was going to by relies on the grid
when solar does not provide enough power.
kristopher
(29,798 posts)2. Then the $$ value of your array to the grid would have exceeded the cost of ...
... providing the grid service to you.
Solar and wind are dramatically lowering peak energy prices around the world.