3 ms·

To the extent that solar is economically beneficial, net metering isn't necessary. Just sell it at market rates, which are astronomical on peak days. How's that

To the extent that solar is economically beneficial, net metering isn't necessary. Just sell it at market rates, which are astronomical on peak days. How's that for logical basis?

ZeroGravitas 7y ago
Yeah, sounds great to me. Add in a carbon tax, removal of fossil subsidies and allowances (to capture externalities) and a whole bunch of nonsense gets solved by the power of the market incentives. I'm not in favour of net metering as an end in itself. As I said I think it still cheats solar providers. But it's a neat hack that quickly and easily moves us closer to the real solution than we were before, while using the existing deployed hardware (the basic idea is the existing meter runs forward and backward and you pay the net).
- reitzensteinm 7y ago
  I'd love a carbon tax. However, I still think you're mistaken that residential solar is in any way subsidizing the grid. Utility scale solar is under half the price, and the gap is only going to widen as PV prices fall and the panels become a smaller part of total cost. Why would you pay a homeowner $2.5/W to install panels on their roof instead of paying $1/W to build a power plant that has the same profile? The only benefit you get is the distribution of the power generation, but if that's the goal and we're willing to pay a lot of money to subsidize it, BEVs capable of demand dispatch powering a home or even battery to grid are a significantly better target. The new Leaf can do this, but there's limited enthusiasm as the economic benefit can't be easily captured. We need to switch to BEVs anyway, and it's crazy not to take advantage of the dual use potential. Solar might shave a bit off the peak days - whether residential or utility by the way - but BEVs would go much further, and enable much higher wind and solar mixes in the grid. Solar is cheap enough already. Net metering did its bit as a kick starting subsidy, but for new installations today it serves only as a wealth transfer to the upper middle class, who get to break even on something uneconomic, greenwash their lives, and displace spending on utility scale solar. Let's solve the issues of tomorrow instead of doubling down on what worked yesterday.

To the extent that solar is economically beneficial, net metering isn't necessary. Just sell it at market rates, which are astronomical on peak days. How's that for logical basis?

ZeroGravitas 7y ago

Yeah, sounds great to me. Add in a carbon tax, removal of fossil subsidies and allowances (to capture externalities) and a whole bunch of nonsense gets solved by the power of the market incentives. I'm not in favour of net metering as an end in itself. As I said I think it still cheats solar providers. But it's a neat hack that quickly and easily moves us closer to the real solution than we were before, while using the existing deployed hardware (the basic idea is the existing meter runs forward and backward and you pay the net).

reitzensteinm 7y ago
I'd love a carbon tax. However, I still think you're mistaken that residential solar is in any way subsidizing the grid. Utility scale solar is under half the price, and the gap is only going to widen as PV prices fall and the panels become a smaller part of total cost. Why would you pay a homeowner $2.5/W to install panels on their roof instead of paying $1/W to build a power plant that has the same profile? The only benefit you get is the distribution of the power generation, but if that's the goal and we're willing to pay a lot of money to subsidize it, BEVs capable of demand dispatch powering a home or even battery to grid are a significantly better target. The new Leaf can do this, but there's limited enthusiasm as the economic benefit can't be easily captured. We need to switch to BEVs anyway, and it's crazy not to take advantage of the dual use potential. Solar might shave a bit off the peak days - whether residential or utility by the way - but BEVs would go much further, and enable much higher wind and solar mixes in the grid. Solar is cheap enough already. Net metering did its bit as a kick starting subsidy, but for new installations today it serves only as a wealth transfer to the upper middle class, who get to break even on something uneconomic, greenwash their lives, and displace spending on utility scale solar. Let's solve the issues of tomorrow instead of doubling down on what worked yesterday.