On 9/16/2013 10:12 AM, JoeTaxpayer wrote:
On 9/16/13 9:12 AM, Leon wrote:
As more homes generate their own power, typically with the help of state
or federal subsidies, they're buying less electricity from traditional
utilities.

Jeopardizing Grid
PG&E Corp., California's biggest, has said this jeopardizes the power
grid because there's less revenue to maintain the infrastructure. In
response, utilities are raising rates, a burden that's a slightly
heavier burden for people without solar power. In California they may
eventually pass on as much as $1.3billion in annual costs to customers
who don't have panels.

I've been following Solar Power progress for some time now. The weak
link is still storage. My cost can be zero from sun-up to sun-down, but
we'll need power the rest of the day for years to come. That guaranteed
power will come at a cost.

The problem with a back up generator is that even with natural gas the
cost of running it will pretty much offset the savings. My sister and a
neighbor have whole house back up generators and the expense to generate
electricity with the generator is around 25~30 cents per kWh. We pay
about 9 cents per kWh from the utility.





When storage is so cheap the overnight backup isn't needed, and a
generator (I'm thinking natural gas, not gasoline) can kick in after the
5th cloudy day, the grid might no longer be needed. That point is still
decades away and yes, there's a struggle with taxes trying balance
things out. But, tax the non-solar home and drive up their cost, and
you'll push them to solar even faster.


You also have to keep in mind that the government is heavily reliant on
energy tax dollars. While taxing the non solar home to persuade them to
go solar or what ever, when that is accomplished every one will
eventually will be taxed for their own generation of energy.