Solar City was doing fantastic here in Las Vegas. There sales people were BY FAR the best when they came door to door.
But Warren Buffet's power company changed the laws last year and basically screwed everyone who had solar. We have completely disincentivized putting solar panels up.
Now the company doesn't do well, and no sales people come door to door from any company. If you are putting up solar in Las Vegas this year, its because you are an extreme environmentalist and willing to pay the penalty that comes with it.
It's much more like no more free money from folks who can't afford solar subsidizing rich folks who can.
Net-metering is a regressive tax. Rich folks with rooftop solar already get a huge massive benefit in the free battery the grid supplies them overnight - reducing their install costs by 5 figures - and they continue to demand horrible policy like net metering. It's been decades now, it's time to end the practice.
Folks with solar were not "screwed" - they simply stopped having non-solar customers subsidize their power usage as much as they were before.
Personally I plan on putting up my own solar/battery install so I can live off grid as needed during power outages. I would find it immoral to then demand the power company pay me retail rates for any excess power I generate. I find it problematic for me to even be connected to the grid for my "emergency use" as it's clearly a highly subsidized backup power source for me at that point.
Edit: I'm okay with an ends-justify-the-means approach to net metering. However, it absolutely cannot be a long term policy as it's exceedingly regressive in nature. Using it as a short-term subsidy to bootstrap an industry is fine. That goal has been accomplished, and it's time to end these transfer payments.
At issue was whether or not homes with solar could sell their electricity at the retail rate or the wholesale rate. There was conflict between Buffet and Musk because Buffet owns the power company NV Energy whereas Musk works in the business of solar. All that said, it looks like AB 405 moves pretty closely back to the old system where solar customers can sell power back at 95% of the retail rate.
Anyway, power is and probably should be tightly regulated. It's worth having an open conversation as to how much money a solar customer should be paid for selling power onto the grid just like we have regulations for all of the other power producers. That doesn't mean they have to be the same regulations, but setting and moving the rate number isn't inherently good or bad.
>>The PUC “has effectively shut down the rooftop-solar industry and taken the extraordinary step to punish over 12,000 existing solar customers, including schools, with exorbitant fees in what appears to be an attempt to protect the profits of the state’s largest utility. All three members of the PUC, who voted unanimously to change the rules, were appointed by Governor Sandoval.”
>>Rive said: “Most disturbing is the PUC’s decision to retroactively sabotage existing solar customers’ investments by changing the rules on them. The Nevada government encouraged these people to go solar with financial incentives and pro-solar policies, and now the same government is punishing them for their decision with new costs they couldn’t have foreseen. These actions are certainly unethical, unprecedented, and possibly unlawful. While the rest of the country embraces a clean energy future, Nevada is moving backwards.”
Net metering isn't even a US law thing, it's a physics law thing. Just basic physics should tell you that selling power for the same price you buy it doesn't make sense due to heat loss in the lines.
If you want a battery buy one, don't try to use the grid as a giant battery.
But Warren Buffet's power company changed the laws last year and basically screwed everyone who had solar. We have completely disincentivized putting solar panels up.
Now the company doesn't do well, and no sales people come door to door from any company. If you are putting up solar in Las Vegas this year, its because you are an extreme environmentalist and willing to pay the penalty that comes with it.