California s Solar-Power Welfare State – WSJ

Rooftop-solar is also making the grid less reliable. The state sometimes generates so much solar power that it must pay other states to take it to stabilize the grid. As wholesale power prices have plunged during the day, natural-gas generators have struggled and shut down. Then there s less power available at night after the sun goes down.

Liberals say the solution is batteries to store solar power that homeowners generate during the day to use at night. But net-metering subsidies are so generous that they may be a disincentive to buy batteries.

Enter the state Public Utilities Commission. An agency administrative law judge last month proposed scaling back credits for excess solar power sent to the grid and adding a fixed monthly charge averaging $20 to $40 to solar customer bills to cover their grid costs. Battery subsidies would grow. These changes would affect new solar customers and current ones only after 15 years.

Greens support the proposal, but the celebrity class has blown a fuse. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently wrote a New York Times op-ed denouncing it as a solar tax. Actor Edward Norton tweeted that it will destroy the rooftop solar market. Elon Musk, whose Tesla sells solar panels, calls it a bizarre anti-environment move.

After punting a vote on the proposal two weeks ago, the utilities commission president last week said it needs more time to consider revisions. Renewable subsidies were intended to be temporary. But as California shows, once the rich and powerful are hooked, the handouts are hard to take away.

via www.wsj.com

Well I’m not a liberal (except maybe classical) and I object to rolling back this particular subsidy, if subsidy it is. The reason why I put solar in in the first place is because my SDG&E bill had become so ruinous, sometimes topping $900/month; yes, you read that right. Relying on calculations of the tax deductions and credits (I forget which; it was too complicated for me), I decided I had to do it. I was basically coerced by the much higher cost of not having solar. So don’t make it sound like I did it for my health. Also, SDG&E was all over encouraging everyone to get solar. Save the planet! Be a good little boy! Etc., etc. Seems a bit rich to now claim were like welfare queens.