Comments on: Solar panels have more than proven themselves

By: Jim Kerr

Jim Kerr — Thu, 01 May 2025 14:24:34 +0000

Enjoy being subsidized with full net metering while you can. It is not economically sustainable in the long run. Imagine an idyllic future where everyone has solar. The problem is that most residential energy usage happens when the sun doesn’t shine. In this idyllic future who pays for the energy being produced at night? Net metering is just an interim economic subsidy to jump start the use of solar. It totally destroys the economic incentives for installing battery storage. Once the levels of net metered solar production rise above 5 percent the subsidies start becoming onerous on the rest of a utilities customers. The long term solution is to wean off the net metering subsidies and only pay the individual solar producing customer what it is worth, which would be the wholesale cost that a utility can obtain that same amount of energy from other renewable energy sources at the time of production.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 17:12:30 +0000

Thank you Andrew and other thoughtful commenters. We here in Taos, New Mexico have a different situation. We have the electric monopoly of Kit Carson Electric Cooperative (KCEC) and it’s leader, Luis Reyes (and board members). KCEC has garnered numerous accolades and awards for developing the public solar grid in our town and county, and this is great. It has led to the KCEC service area becoming 100% daytime solar. Unfortunately, this incredible feat has been 100% subsidized by its customers/owners. You see, as a privately owned electric, cooperative, KCEC is not regulated by the elected officials of the public regulations commission of New Mexico. We citizen owners are on our own. We are at the mercy of the leader and board members and we have to trust that they will do the right thing rather than line their own pockets. Prior to KCEC achieving 100% daytime solar status, a larger portion of the solar input came from private land owner’s systems. These private landowners are paid on the order of two cents per kilowatt hour which KCEC turns around and sells back to them and the public at around 11 cents per kilowatt hour (this statistic has been reported IN REVERSE in the local newspaper that was quoting Luis Reyes). The only people who are able to achieve any savings from this system are the ones who were lucky enough to be able to build systems that were above and beyond their own needs. I hear that for the past five years, KCEC has been limiting private owners to building systems that only meets about 40% of their needs. I do not know this firsthand because I have never received ANY response from KCEC on my three requests for establishing Solar at my residence. I first filled out their online application, performing the necessary, mathematical calculations to determine the size of the system I would need, and received no response. Then I printed my application and went in person to the KCEC offices upon which I learned that the person in charge of solar applications was not in the office. The office secretary seemed sympathetic to my situation and directed me to leave my application on the solar guy’s desk chair so he would see it and address it. The third time that I went to the KCEC offices, I brought my boyfriend with me just in case I was being brushed off because I was not a male. This also had no effect because, yet again, the man in charge of solar contracts was out of the office. With this kind of behavior, I predict that, as battery storage systems become more and more affordable, many will decide to jump ship on the KCEC cooperative and go off grid. I, for one, would like to be able to provide my electric-only house with a reliable system that will get me through power grid outages that could lead to busted pipes and a loss of all the built up heat mass in my concrete slab floor. I am not in it for federal solar rebates, or to take anything away from the general population. Anonymous

By: James Tharp

James Tharp — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 18:50:42 +0000

Good thoughts Andrew but solar,wind and geothermal have cost trillions and have delayed reckoning with the obvious inevitable use of RMR’S (small modular nuclear reactors). Our electrical needs are increasing logarithmically.

By: Buzz Burrell

Buzz Burrell — Tue, 15 Apr 2025 14:43:04 +0000

Net metering came to Colorado via Amendment 37 which voters approved over 20 years ago (2004). A37 also mandated rebates; together this dramatically changed the economics of rooftop solar. For a relatively low cost I made my (former) house in Colorado electric net-zero (produced the same amount of electricity as it consumed).

However, “cost-shifting” should not be summarily dismissed; other customers without PV to some degree subsidized mine. A utility is a zero-sum equation; the costs are born by someone. Net metering means your system is grid-tied, which means you use it the same as everyone else; the 7-state power grid is your battery and someone has to pay to maintain it.

And I have no idea why any PV system would result in “…reducing their vulnerability to natural disasters such as wildfire.” Talking about wildfire is a very trendy theme to latch onto, but let’s please be real and understand how this actually works. When power to your house goes down for any reason, your PV system instantly shuts down with it. You cannot draw one watt of power from your rooftop. There is a very necessary switch in your system that cuts off your own power in a split second, to avoid electrocuting the workers who are working to restore power and need it off while doing so.

A battery backup system does provide resiliency, but as you describe at a large cost and with no incentives. If you look at the numbers, your personal electric load vastly exceeds almost any backup system. And those toxic batteries are going to get thrown away about every 10 years, which is why off-grid systems are mostly only seen in remote areas.

I’m a strong proponent of net metering! And strongly believe in incentives for any solar anywhere, including “distributed power” personal systems. And let’s be real about how they work and what they can and can’t do.