Solar Power Grows 400 Percent in Only 4 Years

[DirkGently]

13. Yes, we've heard the industry argument. It's ALEC bullshit.

There's no evidence the poor utility companies, with their community-permitted monopolies, are unable to collect enough revenue to maintain infrastructure due to grid-tied solar. This is something they are saying in order to dis-incentivize the growth of rooftop solar, which will eventually reduce the demand for coal, etc. It sounds vaguely logical out of context, but no factual support is offered for this proposition, and of course all the other cost benefits of rooftop solar are completely discounted.

It's a dishonest rationale.

For example, what about the infrastructure savings due to people producing part of the power they use? Enough of those, and you're going to need fewer substations, or even fewer power plants.

What about the reduced cost of transmission when power is generated closest to the source of use?

And what about the fact that we need as much incentive for additional solar power as possible? The goal is not to keep utility companies in exactly the same posture they have always been in. That is just not going to be possible, unless they want to jump in and invest.

Net metering of rooftop solar creates value for society and the utility. Every dollar invested by Arizona Public Service (APS), the state’s dominant utility, in its net metering program will earn it $1.54, according to a new cost-benefit analysis of Arizona solar.

Ancillary Services and Capacity Reserves: Distributed solar reduces the APS peak load. Utilities are required to maintain operating reserves of 7 percent and capacity reserves of 15 percent. For each kilowatt cut from peak demand, the cost of maintaining reserves is reduced.

Transmission: Distributed solar defers the cost of new and renovated transmission infrastructure. “Escalating these avoided transmission and sub-transmission costs to 2014 and using the current APS carrying charge of 11.05 percent for transmission yields a levelized avoided transmission cost of $65.14 per kilowatt-year.”

Distribution: Distributed solar can also cut the costs of building and maintaining the distribution system. The Beck study valued the reductions at “$115,000 per megawatt of distributed generation.”

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/The-True-Value-of-Arizona-Solar-By-the-Numbers

And yes, the Kochs care. Reduced use of fossil fuels threatens coal. They care about coal. A lot. Obviously it's not just them. Punishing net-metering is ALEC's newest pet legislation.

The battle in Arizona between solar users and the public utility APS and a mysterious, multi-million-dollar ad-producing group called "60-plus," is instructive:

Early on, APS said with a straight face that they were not funding or running the TV ads, pointing out that they were produced by a nonprofit organization called 60 Plus. But reporters kept digging and eventually APS came clean, even though their spokesperson said they "had no intention of telling a lie to anybody." But that's what you fucking did!

And just who is 60 Plus? Turns out, says Mother Jones, in addition to APS funding they're another not-so-transparent shell for the Koch brothers to funnel money to.

The 60 Plus Association, a Virginia-based nonprofit, has received money from the Koch brothers' donor network.... What's more, APS told the [Arizona] Republic that it had given that money through Sean Noble, a political consultant described in a recent Huffington Post story as "the wizard behind the screen" for the Koch donor network's activities in 2012.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/11/14/1255524/-Koch-ALEC-giant-utility-company-about-to-derail-Arizona-s-solar-industry#

In the latest attempt to rollback pro-clean energy policies, fossil fuel and utility interests operating through the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are proposing new model legislation to slow the rise of the clean energy industry by weakening net metering policies. ALEC released the new model language on their website prior to the group's "States and Nation Policy Summit" scheduled for early December. If passed, the "Updating Net Metering Policies Resolution" would be sent to nearly 2,000 state legislator members of ALEC around the country.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gabe-elsner/the-campaign-against-net-_b_4297678.html