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Dominion Energy's NEM 2.0 Proposal: What It Means for Solar in Virginia

46 points by Vsolar 1y ago

laurencerowe 1y ago
Rooftop solar in the US is absurldy expensive. The 30% federal subsidies alone are greater than the full buildout cost of utility scale solar. At these prices rooftop solar makes no sense. This seems to be more about the US market than rooftop vs utility scale. Australia shows it is possible to install rooftop solar cheaply. Why can't we?
- detourdog 1y ago
  I find it hard to judge the expense of a solar array. I have purchased 2 in Massachusetts about 8 years apart. The SRECs I have received for the first array I would say roughly covered the costs. The second array seems to be on the same pace. I also benefit from the electricity produced. Last year the second Massachusetts changed the electrical repurchase agreement and I just checked the bill for April. I produced 480 more kWh than used. I ended up with a $58.04 credit. National Grid pays me $.24320141 per kWh. I will be pumping just under 6,000 kWh a month into the gird until October. I don't see solar as expensive I see it as a good value. I will always be buying electricity and it will always be rising in price. I'm happy to have the opportunity to invest to reduce these costs. I agree that the system is not fair...
  - laurencerowe 1y ago
    Rooftop solar is great deal for you because you are being paid over the odds for the electricity you produce. At market prices paid by the electricity company the electricity you generate during the day is worth a lot less than the electricity you consume at other times. So net metering is a huge subsidy to you from other electricity bill payers. I don't mind subsidising renewable energy, but as a renter who is not eligible to partake in these deals I would far rather my dollars were spent more efficiently on cheap utility scale systems than expensive rooftop systems.
    - detourdog 1y ago
      No doubt. If it's any consolation the building is a rental and I include the utilities in the rent. The renters get fiber optic internet and flat rate rent/utilities. I'm trying to be as generous as I can.
      - laurencerowe 1y ago
        I certainly wouldn’t want to blame individuals for making the most of the subsidies available. It just seems such an inefficient system.
- conradev 1y ago
  I studied this for a year fellowship, and there are lots of problems, but problems with permitting and interconnection are pretty unique in the US. NREL, NFPA, UL, and Tesla got together and developed SolarAPP (https://gosolarapp.org https://gosolarapp.org). It enables instant online permitting for standard installations, and California passed a law mandating its adoption. It's also sales. Solar is currently sold by salespeople and they need to be paid. The small solar companies contract out to the larger solar companies for crap rates because top of funnel is very hard for them. There is a YC company going after that opportunity: https://projectsolar.com/ https://projectsolar.com/ Software providers like Aurora (https://aurorasolar.com https://aurorasolar.com) are used for making proposals, but they sell software to solar installers rather than vertically integrating and going after it themselves. Tesla sells online, but the online experience ends after you pay and they try to sell you too much solar. Everything, including design, is subcontracted out in my understanding. Sunrun is a great option even though you don't own the panels. PPAs are more popular at the moment because interest rates are so high.
  - utsolartemp 1y ago
    > There is a YC company going after that opportunity: https://projectsolar.com/ https://projectsolar.com/ I have experience in the Utah solar industry. I stopped recommending Project Solar to people after seeing so many bad experiences. You can find stories of good Project Solar installs, but your odds of having a good experience with them seems to be going down year by year. You can see a sampling of complaints by searching Reddit and other solar forums: https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comments/1cheio5/do_your_research_before_working_with_project_solar/ https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comments/1cheio5/do_your_rese... Years ago I recommended Project Solar to a lot of people. Now I almost feel obligated to warn people whenever the topic comes up as penance for all of the trouble I caused multiple people by recommending them. I hope they can clean up their business, but for now I'd approach with a lot of caution.
  - Aurornis 1y ago
    > There is a YC company going after that opportunity: https://projectsolar.com/ https://projectsolar.com/ Are you thinking of a different company? I can't find anything online linking Project Solar to Y Combinator.
- Analemma_ 1y ago
  It's mostly shortage of labor: if you're willing to do the research on your setup, buy the equipment yourself, and just hand instructions+gear to a contractor, you save a bunch of money. If you're willing/able to do the installation yourself, you save even more. This isn't specifically a rooftop solar thing, the entire construction industry in America has been bottlenecked on labor for years. You can insert your own personal hobbyhorse here about why that is (immigration, undervaluing trades, etc.), but whatever it is it sure is a headwind on solar migration.
- Aurornis 1y ago
  > Rooftop solar in the US is absurldy expensive. The US solar market is extremely weird. For many installs, a majority of the money could go to dealer fees (financing charges) and sales commissions. The solar sales industry operates on a "redline" model. The redline is a $/W minimum rate that goes to the equipment and installer, but also to the manager, dealer, district manager, regional manager, etc. The sales people are essentially free to pitch any price they want and they collect the difference. The sales people basically make up the price on the spot based on what they think they can convince you to buy. Many companies have tried direct sales options where customers buy direct and skip the sales commission. They still get hit with large "dealer fees" which go to the financing companies unless they're self-paying though. It is possible to do a full self-pay, direct-buy install with certain companies, but there's a problem: The redline commission model is so lucrative that a lot of the direct-sell companies give up and switch to redline commission models to make bank while they can. There's also a shortage of installers, who get drawn to the high commission companies by their higher rates. I think eventually the market will settle out. For now, there is so much demand from consumers who aren't price sensitive and so many expiring subsidies to create a false sense of urgency that the high priced companies can continue operating.
kanisae 1y ago
Glad I am not a Dominion customer anymore. I will happily stick with my coop and pay $0.12/kwh and keep my 1:1 metering.
- detourdog 1y ago
  .12 kWh sounds great where is that.
  - kanisae 1y ago
    I am on svec.coop, and have been much happier with them than I was on Dominion.
    - akerl_ 1y ago
      It seems like SVEC caps residential solar at 20kw vs 25? Am I reading that right in their docs?
      - kanisae 1y ago
        Yeah residential is capped at 20kw of production for net-metering. I have array rated at 14.5kw and it tracks that at peak pretty well. I hope to add more panels, but they will not be part of my net-metering and be there to charge the future batteries and inverters I want to add.
        akerl_ 1y ago
        I’m in the Shenandoah valley but I have 25kw, so it looks like unless I do something complex I’m stuck on Dominion.
  - gruez 1y ago
    Many states have rates in that range. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.ph...
conradev 1y ago
It's worth noting that while net metering is helpful for bootstrapping rooftop solar, ratepayers are essentially subsidizing solar arrays on the houses of (wealthier) homeowners. The utility company would normally pay wholesale rates for solar energy (which has an aggressive duck curve), but instead they're forced to pay retail prices to net metering customers. California pays wholesale rates now (they're on NEM 3.0) with a fixed fee for maintaining the wires even if you don't use them a whole lot.
- lokar 1y ago
  I’m not sure it makes sense to pick one spot in such a complex system and say “x is subsidizing y” If you believe burning carbon fuels is a big negative externality, then solar users are subsidizing everyone else. When the utility puts up capital to build a plant, they are promised a return on that investment over time.
  - onlyrealcuzzo 1y ago
    > If you believe burning carbon fuels is a big negative externality, then solar users are subsidizing everyone else. If the energy company is paying you $0.12 to sell electricity for $0.09 - they're losing money. Not to mention, they aren't covering any of the costs of maintaining their network (which is a large chunk of the overall cost). If they're forced to buy rooftop solar from homeowners at a loss - they are FORCED to transfer that loss onto other costumers - which means the other customers are subsidizing that. There isn't anything tricky about who is subsidizing whom. Your issues with "dirty" energy are entirely separate.
    - abracadaniel 1y ago
      They’re also simultaneously selling it again for $0.12 ensuring that your surplus free electricity is used by your neighbors. Conceptually it’s a wash, because they then scale down the amount of power they generate. The real world consequence is that power generation is not easily scaled on demand.
johncalvinyoung 1y ago
I wish this article recognized that there is a cost to maintaining the grid, both in transmission infrastructure, but also in maintaining the dispatchable generation capacity to smooth out solar's variability. As frustrating as this policy change sounds for consumers, I can see the case that the utility has variable && fixed costs related to net metering that warrants a sub-retail rate of exchange. In point of fact, roughly the rate that Dominion is willing to pay for solar energy in commercial PPAs. The SREC situation is more complicated. I'm not familiar with Virginia's program, but I could see a case that Dominion doesn't deserve those credits... or one that says if they're building/operating their grid around accepting rooftop solar, some of those tax credits should accrue to their operations. I don't know. I wonder if commercial PPAs also transfer credits in exchange?
andyferris 1y ago
Wow. I don't think we've had net metering in Australia basically ever (maybe if you DIYed decades ago, the analogue counter would have simply spun backwards... not sure if that was ever legal though). If you have solar, there's always two one-way metres with seperate rates (and now real-time smart meters with the optional capability to use a provider that offers time-of-use wholesale rates - so you can profit in energy trading/arbitrage if you have a battery).
Panzer04 1y ago
Classic case of people not wanting to give up a subsidy. It's not sustainable or efficient to continue subsidising solar at this point. If we paid wholesale prices for electricity generated by solar customers, incentives would shift - getting 0-5c on your solar energy would demonstrate that the grid doesn't actually need more energy during the day - the 50c+ prices in the evening would show that we need more batteries (or other dispatchable power)
- somethoughts 1y ago
  A fun theory I have is that once you start seeing industry trade group sponsored lobbyists and influence marketing campaigns matching the level of spending of entrenched industries, you can probably start lowering the subsidies for said industry. Like once we start referring to the solar industry trade group as Big Solar or Big Clean Energy...
  - Calwestjobs 1y ago
    subsidies are bad but they are there not for big solar, but for big not smart brains which need to see freaking solar panels on neighbors roof to want that too. solar + 12 hour LiFePO storage is cheaper than nuclear TCO, in all US territories south of canada. today ( except tariffs, so... who benefits? big solar or big russia, big UAE ? ) get ......! XD https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/apr/24/elon-musk-xai-memphis https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/apr/24/elon-musk...
- lesuorac 1y ago
  We always need more power during the day ... There's huge swing between day-time (think AC and factories) usage and night-time (people sleeping ...). https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=42915 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=42915
  - pfdietz 1y ago
    Install enough solar and that stops being true. In the limit, we have a grid where people make their own power during the summer and the grid only sells during winter (and rare extended cloudy periods). Imagine what rates would have to look like in that situation.
jwsteigerwalt 1y ago
This swings too far. 1:1 Net metering is not sustainable for utilities, this is too punitive to homeowners. I’m an executive at a non-VA residential solar EPC.
- pfdietz 1y ago
  Depending on how much solar gets installed, it may not be swinging far enough. Eventually, homeowners will be charged for the capability of drawing power from the grid, even if they don't use that capability. Take-or-pay pushed right down to the individual residence.
Calwestjobs 1y ago
net metering is virtue signaling. using solar on site is not virtue signaling Building your house to NOT waste as much energy as possible is not virtue signaling. ( What your house loses thru chimney/flue is same amount of energy my house needs to let me be in luxurious west comfort. and if disaster happens, and power gets cut, my house will not fall under 29C/67F for three days without power.... in coldest of days overcast. so i have 3 days before i have to put hoodie on, to find energy to keep my house going, one tenths of amount of energy you need, at least 1/10 if not more. while your children start to cry because they are cold next morning. we do not talk in same language. it is different universe. my house needs same energy to heat as you lose thru chimney. i need less energy for heating than for hot water. with PV my hot water is 85+% of year 100% from solar (PV!), 5%-99% from sun rest of the year. only hot water PV got paid in 5 years, what is expected life for PV? so it is 1/2 or 1/3 or 1/4 "TCO" vs net metering ? ) use subsidies to renovate your house. google/ask AI what is difference between "passive" and "net zero" house standard. so you do not get scammed again. leverage - bank loan. opportunity cost with houses can be tricky, i admit but it is also - what can i achieve in properly designed and properly built house vs in house where im constantly nervous, ill etc? 1/10 of energy for comfort + 50% of that 100% from own roof per year... virtue for your wallet.
- triceratops 1y ago
  > 29C/67F I think you meant 20C/67F?
  - Calwestjobs 1y ago
    Yes, thank you!
K0balt 1y ago
In a case like this it seems like batteries for homeowners would be economically viable and ultimately would actually result in more financial stress for the utilities, as their usefulness would drop to third tier usage. Right now, a 50kw LiTo pack will run about $10kusd (FOB China). LiFeO2 more like 5$K for LiFeO2. With batteries such as LiTo, cycle life goes to around 20k so batteries would be a 20year+ cost, potentially 40 years… so I expect we will see stationary batteries becoming much more cost effective. 50KW will handle most household needs, so that would work out to about $25-$50 a month for battery costs. I’m not sure how utilities are going to survive long term, as their expensive distribution infrastructure is hard to justify for household use where solar is viable. I guess 2x -5x rates is probably going to be the answer, which is only going to accelerate solar / battery adoption?
solario 1y ago
"When the utility puts up capital to build a plant, they are promised a return on that investment over time." People understand that the energy companies need an ROI on their capital investments. None, or very few, see the other side of the equation. With NEM 2.0 the providers chose to forego capital investments in plants, and instead chose to spend that money to subsidize rooftop solar. In effect, they shifted the capital burden to homeowners and businesses. Those who invested their own capital into rooftop solar projects must have an ROI,too. By changing the rules, the energy companies are essentially stealing from individual investors in rooftop projects. Furthermore, by shifting to NEM 3, they are asking for even larger capital investments from individuals while providing limited ROI. This is what is killing small rooftop projects.

46 points by Vsolar 1y ago

Rooftop solar in the US is absurldy expensive. The 30% federal subsidies alone are greater than the full buildout cost of utility scale solar. At these prices rooftop solar makes no sense. This seems to be more about the US market than rooftop vs utility scale. Australia shows it is possible to install rooftop solar cheaply. Why can't we?

detourdog 1y ago
I find it hard to judge the expense of a solar array. I have purchased 2 in Massachusetts about 8 years apart. The SRECs I have received for the first array I would say roughly covered the costs. The second array seems to be on the same pace. I also benefit from the electricity produced. Last year the second Massachusetts changed the electrical repurchase agreement and I just checked the bill for April. I produced 480 more kWh than used. I ended up with a $58.04 credit. National Grid pays me $.24320141 per kWh. I will be pumping just under 6,000 kWh a month into the gird until October. I don't see solar as expensive I see it as a good value. I will always be buying electricity and it will always be rising in price. I'm happy to have the opportunity to invest to reduce these costs. I agree that the system is not fair...
- laurencerowe 1y ago
  Rooftop solar is great deal for you because you are being paid over the odds for the electricity you produce. At market prices paid by the electricity company the electricity you generate during the day is worth a lot less than the electricity you consume at other times. So net metering is a huge subsidy to you from other electricity bill payers. I don't mind subsidising renewable energy, but as a renter who is not eligible to partake in these deals I would far rather my dollars were spent more efficiently on cheap utility scale systems than expensive rooftop systems.
  - detourdog 1y ago
    No doubt. If it's any consolation the building is a rental and I include the utilities in the rent. The renters get fiber optic internet and flat rate rent/utilities. I'm trying to be as generous as I can.
    - laurencerowe 1y ago
      I certainly wouldn’t want to blame individuals for making the most of the subsidies available. It just seems such an inefficient system.
conradev 1y ago
I studied this for a year fellowship, and there are lots of problems, but problems with permitting and interconnection are pretty unique in the US. NREL, NFPA, UL, and Tesla got together and developed SolarAPP (https://gosolarapp.org https://gosolarapp.org). It enables instant online permitting for standard installations, and California passed a law mandating its adoption. It's also sales. Solar is currently sold by salespeople and they need to be paid. The small solar companies contract out to the larger solar companies for crap rates because top of funnel is very hard for them. There is a YC company going after that opportunity: https://projectsolar.com/ https://projectsolar.com/ Software providers like Aurora (https://aurorasolar.com https://aurorasolar.com) are used for making proposals, but they sell software to solar installers rather than vertically integrating and going after it themselves. Tesla sells online, but the online experience ends after you pay and they try to sell you too much solar. Everything, including design, is subcontracted out in my understanding. Sunrun is a great option even though you don't own the panels. PPAs are more popular at the moment because interest rates are so high.
- utsolartemp 1y ago
  > There is a YC company going after that opportunity: https://projectsolar.com/ https://projectsolar.com/ I have experience in the Utah solar industry. I stopped recommending Project Solar to people after seeing so many bad experiences. You can find stories of good Project Solar installs, but your odds of having a good experience with them seems to be going down year by year. You can see a sampling of complaints by searching Reddit and other solar forums: https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comments/1cheio5/do_your_research_before_working_with_project_solar/ https://www.reddit.com/r/solar/comments/1cheio5/do_your_rese... Years ago I recommended Project Solar to a lot of people. Now I almost feel obligated to warn people whenever the topic comes up as penance for all of the trouble I caused multiple people by recommending them. I hope they can clean up their business, but for now I'd approach with a lot of caution.
- Aurornis 1y ago
  > There is a YC company going after that opportunity: https://projectsolar.com/ https://projectsolar.com/ Are you thinking of a different company? I can't find anything online linking Project Solar to Y Combinator.
Analemma_ 1y ago
It's mostly shortage of labor: if you're willing to do the research on your setup, buy the equipment yourself, and just hand instructions+gear to a contractor, you save a bunch of money. If you're willing/able to do the installation yourself, you save even more. This isn't specifically a rooftop solar thing, the entire construction industry in America has been bottlenecked on labor for years. You can insert your own personal hobbyhorse here about why that is (immigration, undervaluing trades, etc.), but whatever it is it sure is a headwind on solar migration.
Aurornis 1y ago
> Rooftop solar in the US is absurldy expensive. The US solar market is extremely weird. For many installs, a majority of the money could go to dealer fees (financing charges) and sales commissions. The solar sales industry operates on a "redline" model. The redline is a $/W minimum rate that goes to the equipment and installer, but also to the manager, dealer, district manager, regional manager, etc. The sales people are essentially free to pitch any price they want and they collect the difference. The sales people basically make up the price on the spot based on what they think they can convince you to buy. Many companies have tried direct sales options where customers buy direct and skip the sales commission. They still get hit with large "dealer fees" which go to the financing companies unless they're self-paying though. It is possible to do a full self-pay, direct-buy install with certain companies, but there's a problem: The redline commission model is so lucrative that a lot of the direct-sell companies give up and switch to redline commission models to make bank while they can. There's also a shortage of installers, who get drawn to the high commission companies by their higher rates. I think eventually the market will settle out. For now, there is so much demand from consumers who aren't price sensitive and so many expiring subsidies to create a false sense of urgency that the high priced companies can continue operating.

kanisae 1y ago

Glad I am not a Dominion customer anymore. I will happily stick with my coop and pay $0.12/kwh and keep my 1:1 metering.

detourdog 1y ago
.12 kWh sounds great where is that.
- kanisae 1y ago
  I am on svec.coop, and have been much happier with them than I was on Dominion.
  - akerl_ 1y ago
    It seems like SVEC caps residential solar at 20kw vs 25? Am I reading that right in their docs?
    - kanisae 1y ago
      Yeah residential is capped at 20kw of production for net-metering. I have array rated at 14.5kw and it tracks that at peak pretty well. I hope to add more panels, but they will not be part of my net-metering and be there to charge the future batteries and inverters I want to add.
      - akerl_ 1y ago
        I’m in the Shenandoah valley but I have 25kw, so it looks like unless I do something complex I’m stuck on Dominion.
- gruez 1y ago
  Many states have rates in that range. https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.php?t=epmt_5_6_a https://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/epm_table_grapher.ph...

conradev 1y ago

It's worth noting that while net metering is helpful for bootstrapping rooftop solar, ratepayers are essentially subsidizing solar arrays on the houses of (wealthier) homeowners. The utility company would normally pay wholesale rates for solar energy (which has an aggressive duck curve), but instead they're forced to pay retail prices to net metering customers. California pays wholesale rates now (they're on NEM 3.0) with a fixed fee for maintaining the wires even if you don't use them a whole lot.

lokar 1y ago
I’m not sure it makes sense to pick one spot in such a complex system and say “x is subsidizing y” If you believe burning carbon fuels is a big negative externality, then solar users are subsidizing everyone else. When the utility puts up capital to build a plant, they are promised a return on that investment over time.
- onlyrealcuzzo 1y ago
  > If you believe burning carbon fuels is a big negative externality, then solar users are subsidizing everyone else. If the energy company is paying you $0.12 to sell electricity for $0.09 - they're losing money. Not to mention, they aren't covering any of the costs of maintaining their network (which is a large chunk of the overall cost). If they're forced to buy rooftop solar from homeowners at a loss - they are FORCED to transfer that loss onto other costumers - which means the other customers are subsidizing that. There isn't anything tricky about who is subsidizing whom. Your issues with "dirty" energy are entirely separate.
  - abracadaniel 1y ago
    They’re also simultaneously selling it again for $0.12 ensuring that your surplus free electricity is used by your neighbors. Conceptually it’s a wash, because they then scale down the amount of power they generate. The real world consequence is that power generation is not easily scaled on demand.

johncalvinyoung 1y ago

I wish this article recognized that there is a cost to maintaining the grid, both in transmission infrastructure, but also in maintaining the dispatchable generation capacity to smooth out solar's variability. As frustrating as this policy change sounds for consumers, I can see the case that the utility has variable && fixed costs related to net metering that warrants a sub-retail rate of exchange. In point of fact, roughly the rate that Dominion is willing to pay for solar energy in commercial PPAs. The SREC situation is more complicated. I'm not familiar with Virginia's program, but I could see a case that Dominion doesn't deserve those credits... or one that says if they're building/operating their grid around accepting rooftop solar, some of those tax credits should accrue to their operations. I don't know. I wonder if commercial PPAs also transfer credits in exchange?

andyferris 1y ago

Wow. I don't think we've had net metering in Australia basically ever (maybe if you DIYed decades ago, the analogue counter would have simply spun backwards... not sure if that was ever legal though). If you have solar, there's always two one-way metres with seperate rates (and now real-time smart meters with the optional capability to use a provider that offers time-of-use wholesale rates - so you can profit in energy trading/arbitrage if you have a battery).

Panzer04 1y ago

Classic case of people not wanting to give up a subsidy. It's not sustainable or efficient to continue subsidising solar at this point. If we paid wholesale prices for electricity generated by solar customers, incentives would shift - getting 0-5c on your solar energy would demonstrate that the grid doesn't actually need more energy during the day - the 50c+ prices in the evening would show that we need more batteries (or other dispatchable power)

somethoughts 1y ago
A fun theory I have is that once you start seeing industry trade group sponsored lobbyists and influence marketing campaigns matching the level of spending of entrenched industries, you can probably start lowering the subsidies for said industry. Like once we start referring to the solar industry trade group as Big Solar or Big Clean Energy...
- Calwestjobs 1y ago
  subsidies are bad but they are there not for big solar, but for big not smart brains which need to see freaking solar panels on neighbors roof to want that too. solar + 12 hour LiFePO storage is cheaper than nuclear TCO, in all US territories south of canada. today ( except tariffs, so... who benefits? big solar or big russia, big UAE ? ) get ......! XD https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/apr/24/elon-musk-xai-memphis https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/apr/24/elon-musk...
lesuorac 1y ago
We always need more power during the day ... There's huge swing between day-time (think AC and factories) usage and night-time (people sleeping ...). https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=42915 https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=42915
- pfdietz 1y ago
  Install enough solar and that stops being true. In the limit, we have a grid where people make their own power during the summer and the grid only sells during winter (and rare extended cloudy periods). Imagine what rates would have to look like in that situation.

jwsteigerwalt 1y ago

This swings too far. 1:1 Net metering is not sustainable for utilities, this is too punitive to homeowners. I’m an executive at a non-VA residential solar EPC.

pfdietz 1y ago
Depending on how much solar gets installed, it may not be swinging far enough. Eventually, homeowners will be charged for the capability of drawing power from the grid, even if they don't use that capability. Take-or-pay pushed right down to the individual residence.

Calwestjobs 1y ago

net metering is virtue signaling. using solar on site is not virtue signaling Building your house to NOT waste as much energy as possible is not virtue signaling. ( What your house loses thru chimney/flue is same amount of energy my house needs to let me be in luxurious west comfort. and if disaster happens, and power gets cut, my house will not fall under 29C/67F for three days without power.... in coldest of days overcast. so i have 3 days before i have to put hoodie on, to find energy to keep my house going, one tenths of amount of energy you need, at least 1/10 if not more. while your children start to cry because they are cold next morning. we do not talk in same language. it is different universe. my house needs same energy to heat as you lose thru chimney. i need less energy for heating than for hot water. with PV my hot water is 85+% of year 100% from solar (PV!), 5%-99% from sun rest of the year. only hot water PV got paid in 5 years, what is expected life for PV? so it is 1/2 or 1/3 or 1/4 "TCO" vs net metering ? ) use subsidies to renovate your house. google/ask AI what is difference between "passive" and "net zero" house standard. so you do not get scammed again. leverage - bank loan. opportunity cost with houses can be tricky, i admit but it is also - what can i achieve in properly designed and properly built house vs in house where im constantly nervous, ill etc? 1/10 of energy for comfort + 50% of that 100% from own roof per year... virtue for your wallet.

triceratops 1y ago
> 29C/67F I think you meant 20C/67F?
- Calwestjobs 1y ago
  Yes, thank you!

K0balt 1y ago

In a case like this it seems like batteries for homeowners would be economically viable and ultimately would actually result in more financial stress for the utilities, as their usefulness would drop to third tier usage. Right now, a 50kw LiTo pack will run about $10kusd (FOB China). LiFeO2 more like 5$K for LiFeO2. With batteries such as LiTo, cycle life goes to around 20k so batteries would be a 20year+ cost, potentially 40 years… so I expect we will see stationary batteries becoming much more cost effective. 50KW will handle most household needs, so that would work out to about $25-$50 a month for battery costs. I’m not sure how utilities are going to survive long term, as their expensive distribution infrastructure is hard to justify for household use where solar is viable. I guess 2x -5x rates is probably going to be the answer, which is only going to accelerate solar / battery adoption?

solario 1y ago

"When the utility puts up capital to build a plant, they are promised a return on that investment over time." People understand that the energy companies need an ROI on their capital investments. None, or very few, see the other side of the equation. With NEM 2.0 the providers chose to forego capital investments in plants, and instead chose to spend that money to subsidize rooftop solar. In effect, they shifted the capital burden to homeowners and businesses. Those who invested their own capital into rooftop solar projects must have an ROI,too. By changing the rules, the energy companies are essentially stealing from individual investors in rooftop projects. Furthermore, by shifting to NEM 3, they are asking for even larger capital investments from individuals while providing limited ROI. This is what is killing small rooftop projects.