208: The Solar Net Metering Dilemma

The 'not paying for the grid' is the same problem of EVs 'not paying for roads'. It's a legacy billing issue. Maintenance isn't a 'per kwh' fee. They need to charge everyone the same maintenance fee regardless of power usage.

Accusing a 'customer' of something the organisation itself is doing is disgracefully fraudulent. Their commercial model is their responsibility, if the CEOs are admitting their business models are so incompetently punitive - they should resign. (Did I miss any adjectives?) Here, we just have a standing daily charge + unit charge. Net metering was always 'grid energy storage' but shocking to see generation is such a small part of the cost - there's clearly room for price reductions. PV panel costs have drastically reduce so if installers are fleecing the market, the cooling of demand should bring them into line. We talk about demand curves and home generation but surely energy companies have commercial customers who are heating/cooling workplaces to flatten the demand curve?

Utilities shouldnt be publicly traded. They exist to provise a required service, aka a utility, to the folks who require it to live. That, like Healthcare, should not be for-profit.

I think every state should have 100% net metering they’re getting the use of the electricity. I’m generating in a clean way if the electric company wanted to buy land and just have solar farms and batteries they could do so but I’m taking the cost on that on the front end, everyone benefits from thissolar becomes so incredibly inexpensive again a pallet of 30 solar panels is less than $3000 these days just about everybody can afford to look at doing this if there are a homeowner

So all the people who use gas to heat their homes and water are passing the cost of the maintaining the grid onto their neighbours. At least that is the logic being used to defeat solar net metering.

Such a brother vibe B1: "I'm sick" B2: laughs

The only legitimate impact to energy providers is that they lose out on rate that was used to justify and finance production and transmission infrastructure. Otherwise it's mostly investor owned energy operators complaining about lost revenue used to make financial performance predictions.

Well, if solar installation prices weren't so exorbitant there might be a higher adoption rate. Maybe we could start there.

I went for a system that makes it possible to go off grid. At the moment I'm still connected, but it only kicks in to support the batteries when needed. I'm in the process of installing a hot water tank, to replace my electric tank less heater. If my grid supplier decides to penalise me in thefuture, then I'll just cut the cord. I'm sure there are many others that are thinking about doing the same. I'm tired of being ripped off by greedy utility companies. Enough already!

After seeing how the power system failed in Texas during the snow storm a few years ago and the state's indifference to the losses suffered by Texans, im not surprised solar with individual storage has become popular. I'd bet they are getting larger storage systems than the average as well.

I live in Northern California and am held prisoner by PG&E, not allowed to forgo their service regardless of the amount of solar, batteries or money. They will remain on the top of my shit list for the duration. I ordered a solar last February to get just under the NEM 2 deadline, 8k with battery. My 1st year will be up in August so I will not know until then if I have a “balanced system.” Under this system I pay a monthly “Total Electric Minimum Delivery Charge” of about $50. My YTD charges are about $700 which I hope to clear out by August. More sun and hours through spring and summer. The battery, Franklin, helps with the frequent outages if I can see them coming and is used to provide power during the mandatory “time of use rate service”. Peak rates can go as high as $.80 kWh

Just a heads up, I also thought I had a mild "permanent cold"... Nope, it was long COVID, and I just got out of the hospital for unexpected GI symptoms (related). Rest (doing literally nothing at all, like recovering from a head injury) is absolutely vital to your recovery from it, so I hope Sean is taking it easy.

Re: Texas, net metering is becoming less valuable for most of the state because we get wholesale rates like utility solar plants. More solar drives down wholesale rates during mid day. The next big push is virtual power plants. There's 3-4 companies incentivizing batteries with monthly credits and ability to export after sundown with prices fall.

"Your neighbor is profiting off of you." Sean's perfect expression of my cynicism. Decades ago, my Dad told me about his buddy who said, "If you recycle, you're just making the Garbage Man rich!" I guess people actually think in these terms.

In Australia we have Feed in Tariffs. Consumption can be something like 35 to 40c/KWH and the the feed in Tarrif 8-12 c/KWh (This after self consumption) There is also a Daily connection charge of 150 to 200c/Day regardless of consumption

Such a great interview

I signed up last year for net metering so I am grandfathered in provided I don't need to add more capacity. I have a SolArk 15K and have another set of panels to max out production, but that doesn't require any renewing of net metering due to the agreement being the max value on the inverter. I also have 20kWh of battery storage and will likely add more next year. I am positive the new net metering standards will soon spread here.

Offgrid is the way to go. 10 * 400 watts panels are $900-1200. 5kw off grid inverter $800-1500. 5kwh server rack battery $1200-1700. 4kw system with 5kwh battery material cost around 3-4k. Cheapest solar instal from Tesla cost 22k for 8kw system without any battery. With battery 33k. And Tesla is the cheapest solar I can find. Sunrun quotes 40-50k with battery storage. Labor costs are killing my solar ambitions. Either I will find someone to put solar panels to my roof for offgrid or I’ll go put myself which is risky considering my skills. I do not have space for ground mount. I live in MA and pay around 0.34c/kwh

25:00 I have solar in NY and the price is different between summer and winter also, but my system covers almost all my kWh for the year, so I have no trouble cruising through the higher winter rates on the credits I built up during the summer. I run a little shy and have to pay, but I end up paying in the spring on my anniversary when the rates are at their lowest. So I'm actually making out better. When I pay, my rate hasn't changed in almost 10 years. Before solar I averaged 14¢/kWh year round, now I'm only paying when it's 14 or 15¢/kWh.

The way many power companies calculate the value of the power you sell them will cause what I call "stingy solar". That's where i do NOT enter into a netmetering agreement but rather produce what I need and run my house on batteries. I won't sell power to the grid at all. I'll only buy on rainy weeks. Many inverters such as SolArk can measure what comes and goes out of your meter and will make only enough to run your house but not sell any power.