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One consequence of this is that it's going to kill rooftop solar. I was about to enter a $30k contract for solar, heat pump, and other upgrades but I backed out
by downWidOutaFite 3y ago
One consequence of this is that it's going to kill rooftop solar. I was about to enter a $30k contract for solar, heat pump, and other upgrades but I backed out when I heard this news. Thats $30k not being invested into clean energy for California.
It was kind of shady how everybody was rushing to get solar earlier this year so they could get grandfathered in before NEM 3 took effect, making all these complicated long-term ROI calculations, but this other new policy that would invalidate all those calculations was kept secret until after NEM 3 took effect.
- creato 3y agoI don’t know, I think this proposal means a neighborhood scale “grid” + solar + batteries is cheaper than PGE for a high income area. What happens to the grid when it’s only poor people left connected to it?
- aidenn0 3y agoPrivate opulence and public squalor.
- downWidOutaFite 3y agoHow is solar opulence? It runs the toaster just the same as pge's power. I don't really gain anything out of investing 10s of thousands into clean energy. I'm basically paying a decade of utility bills up front in order to burn less co2.
- aidenn0 3y agoThe hypothetical series of events is like this: 1. PG&E adds a monthly surcharge that disproportionately affects those with high incomes 2. This makes those with high incomes switch to off-grid to avoid the surcharge 3. Assuming that high-income is a decent proxy for politically influential, now nobody who is politically influential cares if the grid is properly maintained 4. The poor now have an unreliable grid, while the wealthy are off-grid.
- aidenn0 3y ago> It was kind of shady how everybody was rushing to get solar earlier this year so they could get grandfathered in before NEM 3 took effect, making all these complicated long-term ROI calculations, but this other new policy that would invalidate all those calculations was kept secret until after NEM 3 took effect. Since this surcharge is independent of usage, this shouldn't affect the solar calculation, right? That is, if you don't install solar you pay $USAGE + $SURCHARGE, if you do install solar you pay $USAGE+$SURCHARGE-$SOLAR. The total dollars saved with solar should be identical, unless you were banking on a per-kWh increase.
- downWidOutaFite 3y agoThe proposed policy splits the current bill into two part, it reduces the existing per kWH price to add the surcharge price. With solar you sell your excess generation to the utility at the per kWH price, so with the new policy the utility will pay you less. On top of NEM 3.0 already reducing what the utility pays for solar, these projects won't make financial sense anymore.
- aidenn0 3y agoThanks. I knew that and then forgot it over the course of commenting on the article.