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In Florida any home system over 10KW requires you to purchase $1m in liability insurance if you intend to connect to the grid and participate in net metering. T

In Florida any home system over 10KW requires you to purchase $1m in liability insurance if you intend to connect to the grid and participate in net metering. This is not insurance against destruction, it’s liability insurance in case your solar plant hurts someone. Needless to say this requirement does not exist in other states with successful net metering programs, it was invented to discourage rooftop solar. And this is just the highly-visible stuff. You can only imagine what other disincentives the powerful energy company lobbiests have used to discourage other solar installations in the past. PS I’ve now seen multiple commenters explaining that solar in Florida is rare because of hurricane risk. This makes me wonder if some PR firm is circulating this as a talking point.

guhidalg 3y ago
The argument about risky Florida actually doesn't make any sense. There are so many structures that look like solar panels that continue to be built: gas stations, billboards, pergolas, covered walkways, etc... What exactly is different about solar panels that makes their construction riskier than everything else that we do build?
jldugger 3y ago
Liability insurance seems fine -- if the systems and installers are safe, underwriting it will be cheap. What seems to be harder is finding an insurer that will cover you. You can even tie this back to hurricane season if you wish (since you brought it up)-- given the high winds can cause downed power lines, even when a storm has been downgraded below hurricane, you really don't want energized lines from solar while repairs are ongoing. And given Florida's hurricane frequency outlier status in the US, they may want more rather than less of it. One way to keep people honest about this is liablity insurance. Now it's your job to keep it repaired and the insurer's job to inspect it, since they're on the hook. And if someone is injured as a result of your culpability, neither they nor you are screwed. But sure, the energy company probably isn't happy about solar subsidies either.

guhidalg 3y ago

The argument about risky Florida actually doesn't make any sense. There are so many structures that look like solar panels that continue to be built: gas stations, billboards, pergolas, covered walkways, etc... What exactly is different about solar panels that makes their construction riskier than everything else that we do build?

jldugger 3y ago

Liability insurance seems fine -- if the systems and installers are safe, underwriting it will be cheap. What seems to be harder is finding an insurer that will cover you. You can even tie this back to hurricane season if you wish (since you brought it up)-- given the high winds can cause downed power lines, even when a storm has been downgraded below hurricane, you really don't want energized lines from solar while repairs are ongoing. And given Florida's hurricane frequency outlier status in the US, they may want more rather than less of it. One way to keep people honest about this is liablity insurance. Now it's your job to keep it repaired and the insurer's job to inspect it, since they're on the hook. And if someone is injured as a result of your culpability, neither they nor you are screwed. But sure, the energy company probably isn't happy about solar subsidies either.